From: Jim Weirich <jim@...>
Date: 2004-05-02T07:34:45+09:00
Subject: {} VS do/end styles (was: Ruby Newbie - When do I use do/end, when {}?)

Mark Hubbart wrote:
> While there is some amount of preference involved, there is a general 
> rule that most Ruby programmers (and matz, I believe) agree on: brackets 
> for one-line blocks, do...end for longer blocks. ie:

I've heard that general advice, and even followed it for a while.  I 
finally gave up on it because many one liners grow into multiline 
blocks, and it was just annoying to switch from {} to do/end when that 
happened.  Plus the style choice wasn't conveying any additional 
information, so I dropped it and went back to a "whatever looks good" style.

Just recently I've been trying out the following guidelines:

o If the block returns a value, use {}
o if the block doesn't return a value, use do/end

So far I like the way it is turning out.  The style choice helps to 
convey some of the intent of the programmer.

I offer it here for others to try.  If they like it, fine.  If it 
doesn't work for you, no problem either.

-- 
-- Jim Weirich    jim@weirichhouse.org     http://onestepback.org
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"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct,
not tried it." -- Donald Knuth (in a memo to Peter van Emde Boas)