"Confident Ruby" Book Writeup
July 12, 2013
What’s the point?
Confident codes tells a story without getting bogged down in edge-cases or
excessive defensive programming habits.
By improving timid code and other distractions, we can write better code that others (or our future selves) will be able to jump right into.
How was it?
Some of the techniques seemed a bit esoteric to me — especially the stuff
on conversion protocols — but overall there was good, practical advice
that I can incorporate into my code.
The sections that I found most beneficial were on policy objects and making better use of blocks and yielding (something I am pretty bad at).
The book follows a pattern template; not the greatest for flow but easier to search
through as a reference. I wish I could go back in time and pass a few copies of
this around before my most recent Ruby project — there was a real lack of
confident code and the notorious nil affliction.
Who should read it?
It is a good source of learning material for an intermediate Ruby programmer; some
of the more generic patterns (Null Object, Policy Object, Parameter Object) are
applicable outside of Ruby, but there is quite a bit of Ruby-specific stuff.