ERB as a macro pre-processor?

One possibility that occurred to me is to use ERB as a macro
pre-processor.

[snip]

    eval template.result(binding)

Out of curiosity, would there be any benefit to writing the code to a
(temporary) file and having Ruby require that file, instead of eval'ing
the resulting string?

Obviously the file version has the downside of using system resources
and delay for writing/reading the file. However, I have been tought to
have such an aversion to 'eval' in various languages that some part of
me wonders if there would be a good reason to let Ruby do things in a
'standard' way rather than using eval.

···

From: Rich Morin [mailto:rdm@cfcl.com]

I think that the basic concern with eval is that spurious
code might be brought into the program. "require" has the
same problem, if the file has been auto-generated.

-r

···

At 1:39 AM +0900 10/12/06, Gavin Kistner wrote:

... I have been tought to have such an aversion to 'eval'
in various languages that some part of me wonders if
there would be a good reason to let Ruby do things in a
'standard' way rather than using eval.

--
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm Rich Morin
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume rdm@cfcl.com
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog +1 650-873-7841

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