TITLE:

Playing It Safe (in a meta-programming world)

SHORT DESCRIPTION:

Ruby is an amazing powerful language with lots of really flexible feature. Alas, with great power also comes great responsibility. Some of Ruby's features, such as open classes, give programmers from more traditional languages pause. Sure, you can add a method to any class, but should you do that. This talk will explore the use of Ruby's flexible features in the context of larger system development.

LONGER DESCRIPTION:

Ruby's incredibly flexible language features puts a great deal of responsibility on the programmer to use them in a safe manner. This talk will discuss when it is appropriate to use these feature and when it might be better to "play it safe". It will also discuss future language features such as "selector namespaces" and how they effect programming styles.

Topics include:

• How to safely add methods to open classes.
• Avoiding name conflicts.
• Using send rather than send.
• Safe use of method_missing.
• Selector namespaces.
• Safe method chaining.
• Custom "require" behavior.