From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2008-04-04T06:27:12+09:00
Subject: Re: Rake task help with DRYness

Alex Wayne wrote:
> I'm somewhat new to writing my own rake tasks.  I have a pair of tasks
> that convert some stuff from one format to another.
> 
>   rake my_ns:to_a
>   rake my_ns:to_b
> 
> And everything works just fine.  The problem is that the implementation
> the code is basically duplicated.  The process is the same, the only
> real difference is that old_format and new_format local variables are
> swapped in the second conversion task.  I want to make this much DRYer
> by refactoring the common code out.
> 
> Now, if this was a ruby class, I would simply create a private method
> called convert_to(format), or something similar.  Then the format
> conversion happens in this method, based on the argument.
> 
> How does one accomplish this with rake tasks?  Basically I want to pass
> arguments to a rake task, or method of some sort, and use the result.  A
> simple task in general programming, but I am not sure how to make this
> work in the context of rake.
> 
> Thanks for the help.

Not sure I understand, but why not just do what you said: define a 
method that handles the common work?

task :to_a do |name|
   convert(name)
end

task :to_b do |name|
   convert(name)
end

def convert name
   puts "converting #{name}"
end

-- 
       vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407