From: Thomas Hurst <tom.hurst@...>
Date: 2002-01-24T23:27:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Easy references in Ruby?

* michael libby (x@ichimunki.com) wrote:

> You don't really need a reference with Ruby's built-in aliasing do
> you?

I think the question is more along the lines of "how can I make talking
about 'a' identical to talking about 'b', or '@foo', or something in a
faraway scope".

Yesterday I was trying to fill in the values for an object in a way that
would warn about errors but let you continue, e.g;

# make attrs a list of references to attributes
attrs = [:@foo, :@bar, :@wibble]
# values to convert
vals  = ['0212', 'foobar', '0523']

begin
        attr = attrs.shift
        attr = vals.shift.oct
rescue ArgumentError
        puts "Failed converting a field."
        attr = nil
        retry
end

Which would fill in the object's attributes progressively, and would
just skip fields that can't be converted

This, of course, wasn't the way I actually did it; I had a scatchlist
the values were pushed onto and then all the attributes were assigned
afterwards from it, but it would have been nice to have been able to do
it in-place.

-- 
Thomas 'Freaky' Hurst  -  freaky@aagh.net  -  http://www.aagh.net/
-
He who despises himself nevertheless esteems himself as a self-despiser.
		-- Friedrich Nietzsche