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 4: Methods and Their Arguments

Methods are where almost all the logic is implemented in Ruby programs. Along with how you design your classes, how you design your methods makes all the difference between a library that is a joy to use and one that inspires dread. In this chapter, you'll learn how to design methods to inspire joy in the users of the methods, even if you are the only user. You'll learn how limiting the visibility of methods allows for easier refactoring down the line. You'll also gain a greater understanding of Ruby's object model by learning what class methods actually are.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Understanding that there are no class methods, only instance methods
  • Naming methods
  • Using the many types of method arguments
  • Learning about the importance of method visibility
  • Handling delegation

By the end of this chapter, you'll have a better understanding of methods in Ruby...