From: lasitha <lasitha.ranatunga@...>
Date: 2009-02-26T20:26:26+09:00
Subject: Re: Using "rescue" inline

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 1:24 AM, Iñaki Baz Castillo <ibc@aliax.net> wrote:
>> It also can hide problems that you won't know that you have. For
>> example,
>>    myvar = nil
>>    othervar = myvar.downcase rescue myvar
>> Did you want to set othervar to nil also?
>
> Not exactly, but myvar could be a Fixnum so othervar would also be a Fixnum.
> But if myvar is a String then I want othervar to be the same String but
> downcase.

This may be stating the obvious but code that branches based on type
is smelly.  That is not to say it's always wrong, just always at least
a little smelly :).  Particularly if you find multiple places in the
code having to deal with Fixnum and String conditionally.

The inline rescue slightly obscures the conditional but the smell
remains.  It may be worthwhile reconsidering whether you really want
myvar to hold disparate types.

I would also reiterate Rob's concern that this rescue could easily
hide some unrelated bug (mvay being nil being the most obvious).

These two concerns would be enough for me to reconsider, but as usual,
it all depends on context.

Cheers,
lasitha