Book Image

Polished Ruby Programming

By : Jeremy Evans
Book Image

Polished Ruby Programming

By: Jeremy Evans

Overview of this book

Anyone striving to become an expert Ruby programmer needs to be able to write maintainable applications. Polished Ruby Programming will help you get better at designing scalable and robust Ruby programs, so that no matter how big the codebase grows, maintaining it will be a breeze. This book takes you on a journey through implementation approaches for many common programming situations, the trade-offs inherent in each approach, and why you may choose to use different approaches in different situations. You'll start by refreshing Ruby fundamentals, such as correctly using core classes, class and method design, variable usage, error handling, and code formatting. Then you'll move on to higher-level programming principles, such as library design, use of metaprogramming and domain-specific languages, and refactoring. Finally, you'll learn principles specific to web application development, such as how to choose a database and web framework, and how to use advanced security features. By the end of this Ruby programming book, you’ll be a well rounded web developer with a deep understanding of Ruby. While most code examples and principles discussed in the book apply to all Ruby versions, some examples and principles are specific to Ruby 3.0, the latest release at the time of publication.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
1
Section 1: Fundamental Ruby Programming Principles
8
Section 2: Ruby Library Programming Principles
17
Section 3: Ruby Web Programming Principles

Chapter 9: Metaprogramming and When to Use It

Ruby has powerful metaprogramming capabilities, which is a double-edged sword. In the hands of a principled programmer, metaprogramming capabilities result in simpler, less verbose code. However, when misused, metaprogramming can result in code that is difficult to work with and hard to debug.

In this chapter, you'll learn about principles of responsible metaprogramming, so you can put metaprogramming to appropriate use in your libraries.

We will cover the following topics:

  • Learning the pros and cons of abstraction
  • Eliminating redundancy
  • Understanding different ways of metaprogramming methods
  • Using method_missing judiciously

By the end of this chapter, you'll have a better understanding of Ruby metaprogramming and how best to take advantage of it.