From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2011-08-01T05:58:53+09:00
Subject: Re: A question on style...

On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 10:06 PM, Joseph Phillips
<psynaptic_accelerator@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Long time developer here, new to Ruby.
>
> I have a simple, single file Ruby program that randomly chooses a response to input text. I have a method to return the the array of responses, which I call further into the file in my main routine. This is the method:
>
> def get_responses
>     [
>         "Got it.",
>         "Interesting. I've made a note of that.",
>         "Noted.",
>         "Right.",
>         "I see.",
>         "As you say."
>     ]
> end
>
> Is this conventional? Is there any benefit in late acquisition of this array, or would it be normal to just assign it to a variable up front?

I find it inelegant to recreate a constant over and over again.  It's
also inefficient.  Better assign to a instance variable, global var or
even constant.  Note also that you can use Array#sample for automated
picking of a random element.

Kind regards

robert

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/