On Monday 13 January 2003 11:33 pm, Gavin Sinclair wrote:
| On Tuesday, January 14, 2003, 2:53:20 PM, Shashank wrote:
| > Very nice ...
| >
| > One question:
| >
| > In the "Our First Test" section, you say:
| >
| > Ruby Comments: The require keyword in Ruby looks in the ruby
| > libraries for a file named 'test/unit.rb' and will load it in to the
| > running program.
| >
| > Is "require" a keyword (i.e. reserved) in Ruby ? I always understood
| > it as a function which took filename as argument.
|
| It is a method, but calling it a keyword probably makes more sense to
| the target audience, who are expected to be unfamiliar with Ruby.
|
| "require" occupies a space in programming languages usually known as
| "keywords", or in this case, "directives".  Implementation details
| don't really change that.
|
| Gavin

Gavin,

Although I agree w/ the intent of your comment, the following has always 
annoyed me:

"Ok class-- what I taught you over the past three weeks was actually WRONG.  
Now let's try to get rid of your bad habits by teaching you the RIGHT thing."

If they know what a keyword is (or rather, it matters to them), they can 
probably grasp 'method' without too much of a stretch-- In the very least, I 
think it's a vital part of anyone's Ruby knowledge--  I've ran across too 
many people that don't know how Ruby is structured at the toplevel because 
they learned concepts similar [to the above] and never un-learned them, 
assuming the setup was similar to less-OO languages they had used before.

Implementation details, of course, don't change the fact that people percieve 
it as a keyword.  But let's not support it with technical writing as well...  
if you have to, don't label it at all:

| > Ruby Comments: [Using] 'require' in Ruby looks in the ruby
| > libraries for a file named 'test/unit.rb' and will load it in to the
| > running program.

Just my 2c.  I know that doesn't buy much these days ;-).

-- 
Bruce R. Williams :: [iusris/#ruby-lang] :: http://www.codedbliss.com

  'It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate,
  tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.'
  -- Samuel Adams