From: Adam Shelly <adam.shelly@...>
Date: 2008-08-14T02:28:55+09:00
Subject: Re: what do you think of this code?

On 8/13/08, Ben Aurel <ben.aurel@gmail.com> wrote:
> thanks for the input. Here are my changes and my reasoning about it:
>
> - like the unix 'ls' command the default parameter is '.'
>
> - I demand 'path' as a initialize argument but I wont set a default
> value because creating a new instance with new() is wrong and should
> raise an error.

This doesn't make sense to me.  Why shouldn't you be able to create a
new instance without an argument and have it default to the current
directory?
System 'ls' defaults to the current directory.  I think I shoud be
able to type "ls.rb" without arguments  and get the current directory
list, not a "No Argument" warning.
To make it work like that, I would use a default argument,

>  4         def initialize(path = '.')
>  5                 @path = path.empty? ?  '.' : path
>  8                 if File.exists?(@path)
...

and remove the 'elsif dir' clause before the begin block at the end of
your script.

Also, a standard idiom for files that can be either run from the
command line or required is to put this test around the command line
handling part:

  if __FILE__ == $0
  end

That condition will only be true if this file is being executed
directly, not when it is 'require'd.

-Adam