ruby-talk-google Google Group

Re: Ruby byte access to disk sectors like dd does

r...@agileconsultingllc.com (Rob Biedenharn) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:29:02 UT

That sounds like quiz #171 - hexdump - from early this year.
[link]
-Rob
Rob Biedenharn [link]
R...@AgileConsultingLLC.com

Re: What's the new hotness for packaging gems?

ryand-r...@zenspider.com (Ryan Davis) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:30:11 UT

Hoe is still very relevant and is what pretty much all of seattle.rb uses. It has a great plugin system that makes it very easy to enable extra features. Raggi wrote a gemcutter plugin that'll be folded in and default on the next release.

Re: ruby language parser in ruby

ryand-r...@zenspider.com (Ryan Davis) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:25:17 UT

yeah. well. They left that idea FAR behind a long time ago. Sad really, and I don't think there are any plans to push towards a more pure ruby approach.

Re: ruby language parser in ruby

ryand-r...@zenspider.com (Ryan Davis) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:24:19 UT

also ruby_parser... WAY WAY WAY hacked up, but ruby_parser.
I'd like to incorporate some of their ideas back into ruby_parser, but it is sooo different, that merging is nearly impossible.

Re: Class variables, instance variables, singleton; Ruby v. C++

dbl...@rubypal.com (David A. Black) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:24:11 UT

Hi --
I think that was true briefly but not more recently:
$ irb191
irb(main):001:0> class C
irb(main):002:1> @@x = 1
irb(main):003:1> end
=> 1
irb(main):004:0> class D < C
irb(main):005:1> @@x = 2
irb(main):006:1> end
=> 2
irb(main):007:0> class C
irb(main):008:1> @@x
irb(main):009:1> end
=> 2

Re: Class variables, instance variables, singleton; Ruby v. C++

dbl...@rubypal.com (David A. Black) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:21:10 UT

Hi --
I have often made the observation that the answer to 75% of all
questions about Ruby is: "Because classes are also objects." :-)
Rick has explained most or all of what you were asking about. With
regard to class variables, I would encourage you to keep them somewhat
separate in your mind from the rest of the Ruby object and

Re: semantics of @x v. $x

stefano.cro...@alice.it (Stefano Crocco) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:15:16 UT

Well, these are among the basics of ruby, so any introduction to ruby should
explain them. You can find the free version of Programming Ruby at
[link] (it's a bit old, but is mostly
still valid). Then, there are a number of other documentation for beginners
mentioned here [link]. I can't say which ones can be

Re: Class variables, instance variables, singleton; Ruby v.

ral...@dos32.com (Ralph Shnelvar) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:08:51 UT

DM> These are separate questions.
[snip]
DM> I suppose that's the fundamental difference -- in Java and C++, encapsulation
DM> can be enforced to some extent, while in Ruby, it can be easily circumvented.
DM> But Ruby makes it easy to write well-encapsulated code, while Java and C++
DM> make it annoying and tedious.

Re: semantics of @x v. $x

ral...@dos32.com (Ralph Shnelvar) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:02:09 UT

SC> @xyzzy = 5 defines an instance variable for the global object. That instance
SC> variable is accessible only from the top level. $xyzzy = 5, instead, defines a
SC> global variable, which can be accessed from everywhere.
SC> Here's an example:
SC> @x = 1
SC> $y = 2
SC> class C
SC>
SC> def test

Re: Best way to distribute an app

hypermeis...@yahoo.com (Omar Campos) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:33:01 UT

Hi, thanks for the replies. I know this question is probably asked a
lot, but thanks. What did you mean about baking gems into apps? I
think rawr fits my needs, but I will also check out Capistrano.

Date class method `once` wraps original call in Array. Why?

m...@smajn.net (Matt H) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:50:56 UT

I'm reading the Pickaxe and on page 391, there is a code listing for
the class method `once` from the Date module in Ruby:
def once(*ids) #:nodoc:
for id in ids
module_eval <<-"end:"
alias_method :__#{id.to_i}__, :#{id.to_s}
private :__#{id.to_i}__
def #{id.to_s}(*args, &block)

Re: Best way to distribute an app

ni...@slaphack.com (David Masover) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:33:12 UT

Two main ways: As a gem, or as a git repository.
As a git repository is helpful if by "deploy" you mean "push to a webserver",
in which case, I suggest you look into Capistrano. As a gem is mostly useful
for other developers, but you get all the advantages of a package manager --
dependencies, seamless upgrades, installing/uninstalling handled for you...

Re: What's the new hotness for packaging gems?

ni...@slaphack.com (David Masover) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:26:30 UT

Mostly kidding, too, but I have to agree -- the only gems I've actually built
lately have been small enough that I don't see a real advantage to doing it
programmatically. The last time I did, the only real point I saw was getting a
list of files -- only needed when I was letting Github build gems, and

Re: Class variables, instance variables, singleton; Ruby v.

ni...@slaphack.com (David Masover) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:18:43 UT

These are separate questions.
In MRI, you can tell how many instances exist by actually counting them. Look
at the documentation for ObjectSpace.
And yes, you can register a destructor -- that's also in ObjectSpace, and it's
called a "finalizer". But remember, Ruby is garbage-collected -- that means

Re: ruby language parser in ruby

jameskil...@gmail.com (Jason Roelofs) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:47:43 UT

Maglev's got one:
[link]
Jason