Project

spaces_are_ok

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spaces_are_okkimtaro/spaces_are_okHomepageDocumentationSource CodeBug TrackerWiki
Allows the use of strings as class names, module names and method names
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 Popularity
Downloads
3,253
Stars
6
Forks
0
Watchers
2
 Releases
Current version
0.0.1
Total releases
1
First release
2015-01-03
Latest release
2015-01-03
 Development
Primary Language
Ruby
Licenses
MIT
Average date of last 50 commits
2014-12-25
Reverse Dependencies
0

 Dependencies

Development

bundler
~> 1.3
maxitest
~> 1.0.3
rake
>= 0

Runtime

rubyfish
~> 0.0.6
 Project Readme

Build Status Code Climate Test Coverage spaces_are_ok on Rubygems

Spaces Are Ok

Use natural language in your Ruby class and method names.

Like this

space_class("Scorecard for a player").new("Picard").space_method("Calculate the score from a game", game)

or the shorter and fancier

ç("Scorecard for a player").new("Picard").ƒ("Calculate the score from a game", game)

instead of the mechanical and boring

ScorecardForPlayer.new("Picard").calculate_new_score(game)

or the not very informative

Scorecard.new("Picard").score(game)

Why

Naming things is famously one of the hard things in computer science*, but programming languages aren't doing a very good job of helping us write fun and descriptive language.

What if instead of WritingLikeThis, having_to_read_this or BEING_SHOUTEN_AT we could write and read regular language? Maybe it will help us write better programs? Or maybe it won't. But I thought it would be a fun experiment.

Installation

This gem requires Ruby 2.1 or newer.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'spaces_are_ok'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install spaces_are_ok

Usage

Ruby doesn't allow method calls with the keywords class and def, so we have to use slightly different syntax when defining and using our space friendly names. But it's not too bad.

require 'spaces_are_ok'

space_class("Greet someone") do
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  space_method_def "Say hello", def _
    "Hello, #{@name}"
  end
end

greeter = space_class("Greet someone").new("Kim")
greeter.space_method("Say hello") # => Hello, Kim!

Since it gets rather tedious to write space_ all the time, I have included shorthand versions, so the above can be written like this:

require 'spaces_are_ok'

ç("Greet someone") do
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  ∂ƒ "Say hello", def _
    "Hello, #{@name}"
  end
end

greeter = ç("Greet someone").new("Kim")
greeter.ƒ("Say hello") # => Hello, Kim!

Summary of functionality

Defining a class

Plain Ruby
class LaunchSpaceShip
  # Class definition
end
Spaces Are Ok
space_class("Launch space ship") do
  # Class definition
end
Spaces Are Ok shorthand
ç("Launch space ship") do
  # Class definition
end

Using a class

Plain Ruby
LaunchSpaceShip.new
Spaces Are Ok
space_class("Launch space ship").new
Spaces Are Ok shorthand
ç("Launch space ship").new

Defining a module

#####Plain Ruby

module SpaceShipMotor
  # Module definition
end
Spaces Are Ok
space_module("Space ship motor") do
  # Module definition
end
Spaces Are Ok shorthand
ɱ("Space ship motor") do
  # Module definition
end

Using a module

Plain Ruby
include SpaceShipMotor
Spaces Are Ok
include space_module("Space ship motor")
Spaces Are Ok shorthand
include ɱ("Space ship motor")

Defining a method

Plain Ruby
def travel_to_a_planet(planet)
  # Method body
end
Spaces Are Ok
space_method_def("Travel to a planet"), def _(planet)
  # Method body
end
Spaces Are Ok shorthand
∂ƒ("Travel to a planet"), def_(planet)
  # Method body
end

Calling a method

Plain Ruby
travel_to_a_planet(planet)
Spaces Are Ok
space_method("Travel to a planet", planet)
Spaces Are Ok shorthand
ƒ("Travel to a planet", planet)

You don't have to care about spelling

If you're the adventurous type and don't want to worry about speling everything correctly all the time, then you don't have have to. Just turn on the dont_worry_about_spelling-mode.

require 'spaces_are_ok/dont_worry_about_spelling'

space_class("Greet someone") do
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  space_method_def "Say hello", def _
    "Hello, #{@name}"
  end
end

greeter = space_class("Greeet someone").new("Kim")
greeter.space_method("Say jello") # => Hello, Kim!

But should I use it?

Probably not.

Ideas for improvement

  • I haven't been able to figure out a way of doing this for variable names. I would prefer space_variable("Number of vowels") over vwl_ctr. Wouldn't you?
  • Patch Ruby so we could have this as a feature in the language. It could look something like this:
class “Weather forecast”
  def ‘will it rain tomorrow?’
    puts "Time will tell"
  end
end

“Weather forecast”.new.‘will it rain tomorrow?’ # => Time will tell

Contributing

  1. Fork it
  2. Install the dependencies (bundle install)
  3. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  4. Make your changes
  5. Run the tests (mtest test.rb)
  6. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
  7. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  8. Create new Pull Request