Unindentable
With Unindentable, you can write heredocs without worry of wonky indentation.
Motivation
Heredocs are convenient. But the indentation can bite you. For example:
def hello
html = <<-BLOCK
<html>
<body>
<p>Hello</p>
</body>
</html>
BLOCK
end
The problem is that you get extra indentation you probably don't want:
irb> hello
=> " <html>\n <body>\n <p>Hello</p>\n </body>\n </html>\n"
One solution is to move your heredoc to the left margin:
def hello
html = <<-BLOCK
<html>
<body>
<p>Hello</p>
</body>
</html>
BLOCK
end
So that you get the result you expect:
> hello
=> "<html>\n <body>\n <p>Hello</p>\n </body>\n</html>\n"
But this doesn't look good in your source. With Unindentable, you can write:
def hello
html = <<-BLOCK.unindent
<html>
<body>
<p>Hello</p>
</body>
</html>
BLOCK
end
And get the nice unindented result you want:
> hello
=> "<html>\n <body>\n <p>Hello</p>\n </body>\n</html>\n"
That's it.
The Backstory
Here are some examples from the Interwebs where people discuss potential solutions:
- http://oldrcrs.rubypal.com/rcr/show/188
- http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-core/19111
- http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/167227
- http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/95472