From: Todd Benson <caduceass@...>
Date: 2008-10-22T23:03:20+09:00
Subject: Re: What exactly does "rubyish" or "ruby way" mean?

On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 8:37 AM, Nit Khair <sentinel.2001@gmx.com> wrote:
> Over the last month I have been reading a lot of blogs, searching, going
> through source code of some apps and my pickaxe. I am still unable to
> clearly understand what all "the ruby way" means.
>
> I will be perfectly happy if you can tell me:
>
> 1. phrases to google on, or check in pickaxe
> 2. pointers to specific libraries or classes i can study
> 3. link to any article I may have missed, or blog
>
> The only thing I can put down, that i have gleaned, is the usage of
> procs/blocks, i.e. allowing the user to pass in blocks/yielding a value
> or self. I liked the chapter on Ruby Tk in pickaxe (since I am hoping to
> write a rubyish wrapper to ncurses).
>
> Surely there is more to the ruby way than blocks/procs/lambda. Would
> really appreciate pointers.

I avoid phrases like "ruby way" or words like "rubyish" simply because
the language is flexible enough to allow you to do your own thing.

With that said... my style gravitates towards conceptual, whereas some
are concerned about performance, and others about something else.

On this list, it seems people like to talk about elegance, which, to
me, means that very once in a while, someone comes up with a piece of
terse code that, at first glance, makes perfect sense; almost like a
eureka moment.

I think, very humbly, that Ruby tries its best to provide those
eureka/click moments.

So, I believe that your best answer is to read a good portion of Ruby
code (which you said you have done) and pay attention to ruby-talk.
Being rubyish is by no means a standard.  Just look at Ruby Quiz to
see the variety.

Todd