[LRUG] another beginner.. ruby but not rails

[Eleanor]

On 4 May 2007, at 15:29, graham wrote:
> Hmm... as a beginner I would rather not be contemplating working my  
> way
> through lines like:
>
> def R
> c,*args;p=/\(.+?\)/;args.inject(c.urls.detect{|x|x.scan 
> (p).size==args.size}.dup){|str,a|str.gsub(p,(a.method 
> (a.class.primary_key
>   )[]rescue a).to_s)};end;def / p;File.join(@root,p) end;end;
>
> while debugging my tiny application. It's bad enough trying to  
> debug my
> own code, but at least I can comment that..

Camping is very easy to use but the code is definitely guru-only  
level in places. Don't even go near it unless you've ingested Why's  
Poignant Guide (a quick google will give you the URL) or have a  
strong background in Lisp and meta-programming otherwise you'll be  
completely out of your depth.

When I first started doing HTTP-stuff in Ruby I found WEBrick a great  
starting-point. Eric Hodel has written some pages describing the  
rudiments of using it and a couple of weeks of hacking around with  
the possibilities are likely to teach you most of Ruby's quirks. Yet  
again though the actual source code is not particularly friendly,  
something you'll find is common with a lot of the significant  
libraries. I don't think it's that developers are trying to keep  
their work obscure, just that once you grok Ruby it's damn hard to  
think of meaningful comments to adorn it with!


Ellie

Eleanor McHugh
Games With Brains
----
raise ArgumentError unless @reality.responds_to? :reason