From: "ara.t.howard" <ara.t.howard@...>
Date: 2008-04-05T08:06:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Using a string as executable code


On Apr 4, 2008, at 2:01 PM, Peter Marks wrote:
> Thanks for your response. All I mean by 'string function' is a bit of
> code that produces a string. Using my example, 'person.name' and
> 'person.name.upcase' are different string functions. I don't know if  
> I'm
> using the right terminology, but that's what I mean. If I was to  
> define
> all of these 'string functions' as individual methods, it would be a  
> lot
> of additional hard code and I would still have these method names  
> locked
> into the db.

i think you are missing the point:

('a' .. 'z').each do |m|

   define_method(m){ m }

end

defines 26 methods - did you read my code?  you easily define these  
compactly in one module and cherry pick them into a specific class  
with zero db code involved.

why don't you spell out your exact problem and we can show you how.

cheers.

a @ http://codeforpeople.com/
--
we can deny everything, except that we have the possibility of being  
better. simply reflect on that.
h.h. the 14th dalai lama