From: Martin DeMello <martindemello@...>
Date: 2003-01-06T00:57:58+09:00
Subject: Accessing a block's "receiver"

I was writing the following piece of code:

class String
def title_case(exceptions = [])
  exclude = %w(a an the some and but or not for) + exceptions 
  split(/\b/).map_with_index {|w, i| 
  (exclude.include?(w) or 
    ((i>1) && self[i-1] == "'" && self[i-2] =~ /w/)) ? w : w.capitalize
}.join.capitalize
end
end

when I realised that 'self' was not what I wanted, since it belongs to
the block definition scope. What I want is a way to get at the anonymous
self.split object to which the block is passed - i.e. a variable recv,
analogous to self, that gets set when a block is yielded to or a proc is
called.

As it stands, I have to introduce a separate variable, b, just so I can
say b = split(/\b\); b.map_with_index {|w,i| ... b[i] ...} - this
*feels* like it should be unnecessary. What would be nice would be for
'yield args' to implicitly be 'yield self, args', proc.call(*args) be
proc.call(self, args) and {|args| ...} be {|recv, args| }.

Good idea? Bad idea? Disastrously bad idea? :)

martin