more help with address book

[Aaron Haas]

I=E2=80=99m trying to create a simple address book in ruby. It is made u=
p from
the following classes. Address, Phone, Person, and AddressBook . The
Address, Phone, Person classes all work fine. I=E2=80=99m having problem=
s with
several methods in my AddressBook class.

Add(person) needs to check if that person already exists. I tried using
my query method but it only prints the name to the screen. Can I make
it also return an person object to use as a comparison?

The prompt method should take a command (add, print, remove, find,
exit) then depending on which command ask the user for required
information. The command prompts should run continuously until =E2=80=9C=
exit=E2=80=9D
is entered. The add command which is the most complicated of the five
works fine for a single time. I can=E2=80=99t figure out how to implemen=
t a
while condition to keep it going without getting errors.

I=E2=80=99m also having problems with the remove method logic. I built t=
he
remove method to take a variable name as a parameter, but the command
prompt would require an first and last name instance fields from the
person class.

I'm getting close just a few tweaks here and there.
This code is getting long one so I just attached the file. If you think
I should copy and paste let me know.

Attachments:
http://www.ruby-forum.com/attachment/5368/Ruby_AB.rb


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[Robert Klemme]

I’m trying to create a simple address book in ruby. It is made up from
the following classes. Address, Phone, Person, and AddressBook . The
Address, Phone, Person classes all work fine. I’m having problems with
several methods in my AddressBook class.

Add(person) needs to check if that person already exists. I tried using
my query method but it only prints the name to the screen. Can I make
it also return an person object to use as a comparison?

You should remove the printing from the finding because this is a
completely different aspect. You basically have two options to improve
this:

1. Change #query to return an Array of found items.

2. Change #query so that it yields every matching entry to a block
passed to the method.

Advantage of both approaches is that you can reuse the query code in
different situations. I would go with version 2 but 1 might be easier
to understand at first. If you do 2 you could code like this

def print_query(name)
query name do |person|
puts person
end
end

def query_first(name)
query name do |person|
return person
end

nil
end

def add(name, ...)
raise "Person known already" if query_first(name)
...
end

The prompt method should take a command (add, print, remove, find,
exit) then depending on which command ask the user for required
information. The command prompts should run continuously until “exit”
is entered. The add command which is the most complicated of the five
works fine for a single time. I can’t figure out how to implement a
while condition to keep it going without getting errors.

I would create a class per command. This class can contain the prompt
text as well as the evaluation logic. You could then stuff instances of
those classes in a Hash and just look them up via command.

But: I would remove the code from AddressBook. Currently you are mixing
model code (i.e. data management of address books) with user interface
(output, prompting etc.). That's usually considered bad because you mix
logic with presentation.

I’m also having problems with the remove method logic. I built the
remove method to take a variable name as a parameter, but the command
prompt would require an first and last name instance fields from the
person class.

I'm getting close just a few tweaks here and there.
This code is getting long one so I just attached the file. If you think
I should copy and paste let me know.

You could host this on github. That way you also have version control
and can look at the path of evolution later.

Kind regards

robert

 

[Adrian Tepes]

The prompt method should take a command (add, print, remove, find,

exit) then depending on which command ask the user for required
information. The command prompts should run continuously until =E2=80= =9Cexit=E2=80=9D
is entered. The add command which is the most complicated of the five
works fine for a single time. I can=E2=80=99t figure out how to implem= ent a
while condition to keep it going without getting errors.

About this part I think input "command" and its params once will be more
flexible.
add [Aaron Haas]{1144 S. Fourth, Columbus, Ohio, 43209}
more acceptable than:
[
add
Enter first name:
Aaron
...blah
...blah
]

u can use regexp to make friendly command line
<command> [<name info>] {<addr info>}
\[(.*)\]\s*\{(.*)\}\s*(\+\d{,10}\+)?

As "Robert" said,seperate detail processing code from user interface is =

good for extension and maintanace.

Also from UE(user experience) provide more foolish inputting way,just =

pick up useful information in clutter,it's painful for me to adjust your =

code when I use your defined class like Address,Person...That's too much =

fields need to be filled in.Any way if you provide GUI it's another =

thing,but now in CLI,the simple is the best.

I made a Command class put all cmd processing code in it.Defining a =

class method to provide a command list.Left "prompt" as a command =

dispatcher.
U can take a look Hope that can help u.

Attachments:
http://www.ruby-forum.com/attachment/5383/problem101114.rb


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