From: ahoward <ahoward@...>
Date: 2003-02-04T07:35:39+09:00
Subject: Re: Designing API strings vs symbols?

On Mon, 3 Feb 2003, Travis Whitton wrote:


i know exactly what you are talking about : symbols look nice, but strings are
more inline with cgi programming internals

why not support both?

  def method s
    s = s.intern if String === s   # use symbols internally
  end

or

  def method s
    s = s.to_s.gsub /^:/, '' if Symbol === s  # use strings internally
  end

-a

> Hello all, I'm currently doing a port of Perl's Data::FormValidator module
> to Ruby because I think it would be an extremely useful library to have around,
> and I can't find anything like it on the RAA. Here's an example usage:
>
> @fv = FormValidator.new
> profile = {
>   :optional => ["company", "fax"],
>   :required => ["fullname", "phone", "age"]
> }
> form = {
>   "company"  => "Some Company",
>   "fullname" => "Travis Whitton",
>   "phone"    => ""
> }
> @fv.setup(form, profile)
> @fv.required # => ["age", "phone"]
>
> or you'll be able to use a runner and just say:
> @fv = FormValidator.new
> @fv.validate(form, profile)
>
> which would run an entire suite of tests on the given input storing the result
> in instance variables. Of course, it will have more functionality than this,
> but on to my question:
>
> Would most people prefer profile to exclusively use symbols, or should it
> use the mix of symbols and strings as defined above? I.e.,
>
> # symbol version
> profile = {
>   :optional => [:company, :fax],
> }
> # string version
> profile = {
>   :optional => %w{company fax}
> }
>
> I'm currently using strings because they're analogous to keys given to
> Ruby's CGI objects; however, if symbols would be preferred, I'll go that route.
> Also note, the current version is returning arrays of strings in the list
> of missing fields, which could also easily be changed. I want to design this
> properly the first time, so I don't have to go back and break the API. Also,
> I'm having some weird behaviour with my unit tests where, I have to insert a
> blank line at the end of my test, or it will break Test::Unit::TestCase with
> the following error:
>
> Loaded suite testvalid
> /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.6/test/unit/util/procwrapper.rb:25:in `initialize':
> unmatched ): /\300\017\022\010Proc:)/ (RegexpError)
> from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.6/test/unit/util/observable.rb:39:in `new'
> from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.6/test/unit/util/observable.rb:39:in
> `add_listener'
> from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.6/test/unit/ui/console/testrunner.rb:62:in
> `attach_to_mediator'
> from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.6/test/unit/ui/console/testrunner.rb:44:in
> `start'
> from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.6/test/unit/ui/console/testrunner.rb:21:in
> `run'
> from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.6/test/unit.rb:192
> from /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.6/test/unit.rb:164
> from testvalid.rb:9
>
> Anybody else had this problem?
>
> Thanks,
> Travis Whitton <whitton@atlantic.net>
>
>

-- 

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 | Ara Howard
 | NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory
 | Information and Technology Services
 | Data Systems Group
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 | Email: ahoward@fsl.noaa.gov
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 | Fax:    303-497-7259
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