On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:51 PM, Mark Wilden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 8:34 AM, Zach Dennis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> >> > Nevertheless, I regard the practice as a bit of >> > an affection - 'look at me, ma, I'm opening the eigenclass!' - or as the >> > imitation of an affection. It confuses newbies to no purpose, and >> > confuses >> > everyone when 'class << self' has scrolled off the top of the screen. >> >> A lot of things confuse newbies. I don't think that's a very good >> point for why you don't do something. > > I believe potential confusion is a good argument against something, ceteris > paribus. However, as I indicated at the end of my message, ceteri are not > always paribi. In other words, we all do things that would confuse newbies, > but (like #each) they have obvious benefits. That's why we use them. > >> Educating people so they understand why and when it should be avoided > > Well, sure, but I'm just talking about cutting some code, here, not writing > a blog article. > >> is better then raising a fire alarm (unless it's really a fire). >> Contrary to your statement though, I don't use class << self to feel >> special, and my ma could care less about how I code. ;) > > Sorry! I didn't mean to seem like I was addressing you personally, Zach.
I didn't think you were. Did my wink-smily not come through? > In > fact, I was thinking of a blog entry I read the other day where a single > method was enclosed in 'class << self.' The only reason I could think of for > that was 1) because it looked cool to the author, or 2) he thought it would > look cool to others. It just looked like a couple of lines of wasted space > to me. > > I don't know about any fire alarms - I think the important thing to consider > is what benefits the practice has. In most cases I've seen, there aren't > any, and it does have the disadvantages I mentioned. > > ///ark > -- Zach Dennis http://www.continuousthinking.com http://www.mutuallyhuman.com _______________________________________________ rspec-users mailing list rspec-users@rubyforge.org http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users