From: Jim Freeze <jim@...>
Date: 2002-05-24T01:08:08+09:00
Subject: Re: method_missing is cool (was: are there unit tests for cgi.rb?)

On Fri, May 24, 2002 at 12:44:24AM +0900, Wakou Aoyama wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I think method_missing is not good. because, real error is hidden.
> 
Yes, that has been said before, but in another way. This method
while compact, cannot verify correct syntax.

> On Thu, May 23, 2002 at 12:20:45PM +0900,
>  Jim Freeze wrote:
> 
> > puts a.h1("Title") 
> > puts a.a({'href'=>'http://mylink'}) { a.h1 { "Title" } }
> > puts a.a({'href'=>'http://mylink'}) { a.h1 { "Title" } }, a.br
> 
> Isn't this enough?
> 
> def a(element, attr = {})
>   "<#{element}" + attr.collect{|k,v| %Q< #{k}="#{v}"> }.to_s + ">" +
>   if block_given? then yield.to_s + "</#{element}>" else "" end
> end
> 
Yes, but you need to define it for every entity, (hr, a, body, html, tr, table, td, ul, li, ...)
Hence, the method missing is a cheap way to do this repeated task with a single
piece of code. I suppose that you could add the entities to a list
and check for membership inside method_missing. Then you could at least
verify that a correct entity was being used. But you would need
more code still to verify correct attributes are being used with 
a particular entity.

Jim

-- 
Jim Freeze
If only I had something clever to say for my comment...
~