From: Phrogz <gavin@...>
Date: 2007-04-07T15:55:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Method constant arguments

On Apr 6, 11:47 pm, Alexandre Rosenfeld <airm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>   def dosomework(directory, overwrite = false, use_id_as_filename =
> true)
>
>   dosomework('/', true, false)
>
> I would like to call that function with some readable parameters,
> something like this:
>
>   dosomework('/', Overwrite, UseIdAsFilename)
>
> I have tried array arguments and hashes, but I didn't like those
> solutions. What would be the recommended way to do that in Ruby?

Here's one way:

  def dosomehomework( directory, options={} )
    if options[:overwrite] then
      ...
  end

  dosomehomework '/', :use_id_as_filename=>true, :overwrite=>false

You lose the self-documentating nature of the method arguments, but
gain clarity in the method call as well as order-independance.

Rumor has it Ruby 2.0 will have keyword arguments; I'm not sure what
the current proposal is, but iirc you'll have the best of both worlds
there.