From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2012-04-24T22:20:59+09:00
Subject: Re: gem-packed script with DATA section does not work

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 2:59 PM, Wybo Dekker <wybo@xs4all.nl> wrote:
> On 2012-04-24 11:08, Robert Klemme wrote:
>> # single quotes are important!
>> MY_DATA = <<'DAT'
>> doc is here
>> DAT
>>
>> And if you place it at the end of the script you have pretty much the
>> same as with __END__ - plus, you can even define more documents that
>> way.  You could also do
>
> Maybe I don't see the clue, but putting the doc at the end of the script
> (and thus necessarily using it before its definition) results in:
>
> uninitialized constant MY_DATA (NameError)

Putting it at the end does not necessarily mean you use it before the
definition especially if the file is a library file (i.e. no code gets
executed).

$ ruby19 y.rb
3

$ cat -n y.rb
     1
     2
     3  require './x'
     4
     5  puts size()
     6

$ cat -n x.rb
     1
     2
     3  def size
     4    return MY_DATA.length
     5  end
     6
     7
     8  MY_DATA = "foo"
     9


I cannot judge your case since your demo gem just contained demo
content.  If you insist on having the data at the end, there are other
approaches as well:

$ ruby19 -r ./z.rb -e 'p get'
"This is\nmy\n\ndata\n"

rklemme@padrklemme2 /tmp/tmpenv.sh-8oDIBS
$ cat -n z.rb
     1
     2
     3  def get
     4    File.read(__FILE__)[%r{^=begi\s*#\s*DATA$\r?\n(.*)^=end\s*\z}m, 1]
     5  end
     6
     7  =begin # DATA
     8  This is
     9  my
    10
    11  data
    12  =end

Kind regards

rober


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