From: danfan46 <danfan46@...>
Date: 2011-03-21T16:12:21+09:00
Subject: Re: Name generator | I need feedback

On 2011-03-20 15:20, Justin D. wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I created a name generator in Ruby. Basically, I have a file
> (default.txt) that contains words. These words are separated in two :
> "adjectives" and "nouns". Result : adjective noun .
>
> In my file default.txt, I use this scheme :
>
> adjective_1
> adjective_2
> adjective_3
> adjective_n
> --   # separator
> noun_1
> noun_2
> noun_3
> noun_n
>
> (*NOTE*: I added another category : "separators" to separate adjectives
> and nouns (eg.: " ", _ - |) =>  adjective_noun or adjective noun)
>
> I would simply like to know if my code is optimize and if it follow
> Ruby's way enough.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Attachments:
> http://www.ruby-forum.com/attachment/6043/name_generator.rb
> http://www.ruby-forum.com/attachment/6044/default.txt
>
>
Hi Justin!

The important thing is not to make the code look smart and condensed.

What is important is that it works as intended, and when you return
to the program after n years, it should be easy to understand what it is doing.

Works as intended?
Look at the contents of seps[0] and nouns[0]. Was that your intention?

The concept of reading a file into an array, convert that to a string and then
split the string into three new arrays, is not very intuitive.

A cleaner approach would be
1. Use three files, adjs.txt,  seps.txt, nouns.txt
or
2. Use a record prefix A:, S:, N:
or (if you must stick to that file layout
3. iterate over the file and use a switch that changes when you match "--"
    to keep track of where you are in the source file.
    case switch
        when 0 then  ...adjs...
        when 1 then  ...seps...
        when 2 then  ...nouns...
    end

/dg