> I highly recommend including the following disclaimer in every
> golf-related post:
> 
>   DISCLAIMER: I do not believe that reducing code to the
>   smallest possible size is always or even usually a good
>   idea.  However, I tend to learn a lot about Ruby from
>   this kind of exercise, and that's why I do it.
> 
>


I haven't reduced the code size everywhere. I tried to maintain
readability by using nice variable names, where possible, and
I avoided using multiline { ... } blocks, which I hate.
I think that reducing the code size is only one aspect of Ruby golf.

The real chellange is to maximize the elegance of the code.

Christian