Comments on: Simplifying Rails Block Helpers (With a Side of Rubinius)

By: Michael Slade

Michael Slade — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 08:21:03 +0000

Why couldn’t erb have, say, this method:

def _erb_write_(stuff); _buf << stuff.to_s end

and then replace "” with “_erb_write_ foo”?

Then you only need to know about one end of the block. the “end” part doesn’t need to be checked.

Could it break some other obscure expressions? Is it perhaps worth it?

Yes I know _buf is local and might need to become an instance var or similar.

Also the function to perform that operation could also be exposde to template code to be used inside as a consistent method for adding to the output inside a larger block of code.

Sorry about the late reply :)

By: Eloy Duran

Eloy Duran — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:39:42 +0000

One word; awesome!

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:33:42 +0000

Thanks for blog post – Rubinius looks really useful for things like this

“helper writers should be able to think of block helpers the same way they think about traditional helpers”

completely agree – so I’ve written a block helpers gem you might find interesting at http://github.com/markevans/block_helpers
( blog post at http://blog.new-bamboo.co.uk/2009/8/14/block-helpers )

I’d love to see that kind of thing in Rails

By: Gabe Hollombe

Gabe Hollombe — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:47:45 +0000

Katz, I just want to send a big “Thanks!” for all of the posts you’ve been writing lately on Rails internals. I’m learning tons from your examples; you must be going for Rails blogger of the year award or something, and you’re doing a damn fine job. Thanks again and please keep up the great writing!

By: Peter Wagenet

Peter Wagenet — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:37:36 +0000

This is pretty sweet! As others have said, I’m always for cleaning up the dirty insides even when the outside looks great. I’m really looking forward to Rails 3.

By: Elliot Winkler

Elliot Winkler — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:12:57 +0000

Oh, and I was wondering whether y’all would be using Erubis, considering it beats the pants off of ERB and all ;)

By: Elliot Winkler

Elliot Winkler — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:11:26 +0000

Woah! That is simply astounding. And simple.

Also, seeing that backtrace in Rubinius made me feel all warm and fuzzy. If only we had that in MRI!!

By: Pete Nicholls

Pete Nicholls — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:29:51 +0000

Love it, you guys rock! You took something that always bugged me, fixed it and made it awesome. <3

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:02:09 +0000

Freaking brilliant! I’ve always wanted this syntax – thanks for figuring out how to pull it off and documenting the journey.

By: Tiago Pinto

Tiago Pinto — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:48:48 +0000

I’m loving all these posts about Ruby and how you’re making it better. Thanks for your work on Rails and thanks for your insights into Ruby code like this one.