From: Panagiotis Atmatzidis <ml@...>
Date: 2012-01-25T23:53:12+09:00
Subject: A sort of design question

Dear Ladies (??) and Gentlemen (okay we have plenty of those),

I wrote a script which needs a variable in order to proceed. This variable is defined by the user otherwise the default location is chosen. After a discussion I had on IRC (#ruby @ Freenode), I came up with a few questions.

My script is structured like this:

class [...]
optparse [...]
execution_flow_control [...]

I do the 'control' of this variable inside the class like this:

class Prog
 attr_accessor :database
 def initialize(database)
   @database = database
 end                     

[...]

	def create_table(tableid)
   		if @database and File.exists?(@database) <--- control
[...]

end


I was wondering if this is the right way actually do this control since, if @database is not set, the flow will never reach that point, because the class takes 1 argument (which is @database) and if it's null, it will come up with an error.

The script works fine, as is. I optimized it a bit, by removing and/or optimizing some functions. But I'm curious, where is the right place for doing this control which is necessary for execution?

Best Regards,

ps. Here is the entire script: https://github.com/atmosx/morula/blob/master/morula 


Panagiotis Atmatzidis
-----------------------------
Pharmacy Student at VFU, Brno
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The wise man said: "Never argue with an idiot, he brings you down to his level and beat you with experience."