From: "Christoffer Lernö" <lerno@...>
Date: 2007-03-16T20:20:28+09:00
Subject: Re: Anyone playing with higher order messaging in ruby?


On Mar 16, 2007, at 07:25 , Brian Candler wrote:

>> If you know you're doing things like this a lot, there is an obvious
>> shortcut:
>>
>> class Array
>>
>>   class Forwarder
>>     def initialize(array)
>>       @array = array
>>     end
>>     def method_missing(symbol, *args)
>>       @array.each { |entry| entry.__send__(symbol, *args) }
>>     end
>>   end
>>
>>   def each_do
>>     Forwarder.new(self)
>>   end
>>
>> end
>>
>> Now you can do:
>>
>> array.each_do.do_something(1, "a")
>
> or just:
>
> module Enumberable
>   def each_do(meth, *args, &blk)
>     each { |item| item.send(meth, *args, &blk) }
>   end
> end
>
> array.each_do(:do_something, 1, "a")
>
> which has the advantage that do_something can take a block too, if  
> you wish.

Well, actually you might want to pass around the result of each_do to  
something else, this is why I believe that in most cases the former  
version is preferable.

Consider a chat server where @clients = [connection1, connection2...]

assuming each connection has a method like "broadcast_chat", the code  
looks like this:

@clients.each_do.broadcast_chat(incoming_chat)

I like it because it feels clear what is happening and that this is  
the same as

@clients.each { |c| c.broadcast_chat(incoming_chat) }

Here

@cliente.each_do(:broadcast_chat, incoming_chat)

is not as obvious when it comes to detemining what is the action and  
what is the data.