From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2006-11-17T05:04:30+09:00
Subject: Re: #returning and #tap

On Nov 15, 2006, at 5:40 PM, Joel VanderWerf wrote:
> Eric Hodel wrote:
> ...
>> So... it usually doesn't save any lines, it adds typing, it hides  
>> the object you're returning in the middle of a statement and it is  
>> significantly more expensive to execute[1].  (Oh, but maybe, in  
>> some cases, it might save you one or two lines of code.)
>> No thanks.
>> I don't think that makes it more rubyish.  Every time I've  
>> encountered #returning in Rails I've found it decreased the  
>> readability of the code and uselessly increased the complexity.   
>> (Wait, now what does this return? oh, yeah, way up there.)
>
> This variant saves typing and IMO is more idiomatically ruby:
>
> class Object
>   def then
>     yield(self)
>     self
>   end
> end
>
> def foo
>   @foo ||= Foo.new.then do |f|
>     f.bar = "bar"
>   end
> end

$ wc
[...]
        5      12      67

> Otherwise you have to do this:

I would write it:

def foo
   return @foo if @foo
   @foo = Foo.new
   @foo.bar = 'bar'
   @foo
end

$ wc
...
        6      14      77

Ten characters and one line more typing, but less punctuation.  (And  
those ten extra characters will be mostly be handled by my tab key.)

-- 
Eric Hodel - drbrain@segment7.net - http://blog.segment7.net
This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant

http://trackmap.robotcoop.com