Rapid Prototyping Perl In Ruby?

[thoran]

Hello Again Good Folk of Rubydom,

I was searching for a library in Ruby which I wasn't sure existed, and
sometimes I'll go looking to see if Perl has something. (And when
doesn't it?) When I find that something in Perl it'll often lead me to
something that does exist in Ruby because of a re-implementation which
has the same name or makes reference to the Perl version as its
inspiration, such as was the case with Mechanize recently.

Anyhow whilst doing so, I came across this file:
http://search.cpan.org/src/SIMON/Acme-OneHundredNotOut-100/OneHundredNotOut.pm,
which contains this little gem:

"You know those little snippets that Google and other search engines
display when you
search for some terms? They contextualise the terms in the body of the
document and highlight them in a snippet that best represents how
they're used in the document. This is actually a really hard problem,
and it took me several goes to get L<Text::Context> right. It uses
L<Text::Context::EitherSide> as an "emergency" contextualizer if it
can't get anything right at all, but the algorithm itself is a bit of a
swine.

<paragraph continues, but separated for emphasis>

"I actually had to prototype this module in Ruby to get my
thinking clear enough to code it up in Perl..."

Does this seem a little muddle-headed to anyone!?

Sincerely,



thoran

 

[dblack]

Hi --

Hello Again Good Folk of Rubydom,

I was searching for a library in Ruby which I wasn't sure existed, and
sometimes I'll go looking to see if Perl has something. (And when
doesn't it?) When I find that something in Perl it'll often lead me to
something that does exist in Ruby because of a re-implementation which
has the same name or makes reference to the Perl version as its
inspiration, such as was the case with Mechanize recently.

Anyhow whilst doing so, I came across this file:
http://search.cpan.org/src/SIMON/Acme-OneHundredNotOut-100/OneHundredNotOut.pm,
which contains this little gem:

"You know those little snippets that Google and other search engines
display when you
search for some terms? They contextualise the terms in the body of the
document and highlight them in a snippet that best represents how
they're used in the document. This is actually a really hard problem,
and it took me several goes to get L<Text::Context> right. It uses
L<Text::Context::EitherSide> as an "emergency" contextualizer if it
can't get anything right at all, but the algorithm itself is a bit of a
swine.

<paragraph continues, but separated for emphasis>

"I actually had to prototype this module in Ruby to get my
thinking clear enough to code it up in Perl..."

Does this seem a little muddle-headed to anyone!?

Maybe I still haven't had enough caffeine... but it doesn't sound
muddle-headed to me. I'm actually not sure what aspect of it you
mean. I certainly wouldn't second-guess Simon Cozens, who has written
more than 100 Perl modules, if that's how he felt he wanted to
proceed.


David

--
David A. Black ([email protected])
Ruby Power and Light, LLC (http://www.rubypowerandlight.com)

"Ruby for Rails" chapters now available
from Manning Early Access Program! http://www.manning.com/books/black

 

[James Britt]

Hi --




Maybe I still haven't had enough caffeine... but it doesn't sound
muddle-headed to me. I'm actually not sure what aspect of it you
mean. I certainly wouldn't second-guess Simon Cozens, who has written
more than 100 Perl modules, if that's how he felt he wanted to
proceed.

Remarkable testimony, too, on how language choice effects thinking.

Pretty striking if Simon Cozens has difficulty thinking something
through in Perl, but finds that Ruby engenders clarity.

 

[pat eyler]

Hi --



Simon took very strongly to Ruby, and was pretty visible for a while.
I don't really know, but I think he might be spending more time on his
ministry than on programming lately, at least to the extent that he
hasn't had time to hang out in Ruby-space. It's too bad -- it was
nice having him around.

He did mention that he was stepping away from programming on his
blog last year. I think he was going on a ministerial training program.

 

[thoran]

It's a sign! Prediction: Simon Cozens Will Code Ruby...

I accidently ended up on Simon Cozens website for the first time ever
and it turns out he is going to, of all places to be a missionary,
Japan! Clearly Matz has been too busy coding to be doing any religious
conversions if outside help is required.

Even more of an omen for Simon is in the photo of his latest blog entry
(http://blog.simon-cozens.org/)... If you look closely you'll see a
packet of Matzos on the left of the table.

Too weird.



thoran