# Ruby Weekly News 21st - 27th November 2005 **URL:** \ **Category:** ruby-talk\ **Created:** [30 November 2005 12:17 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/ruby-weekly-news-21st-27th-november-2005/22871 "2005-11-30T12:17:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tim\_Sutherland1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Tim\_Sutherland1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Tim_Sutherland1)\ **Post date:** [30 November 2005 12:17 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/ruby-weekly-news-21st-27th-november-2005/22871/1 "2005-11-30T12:17:31Z")
[http://www.rubyweeklynews.org/20051127.html](http://www.rubyweeklynews.org/20051127.html) Ruby Weekly News 21st - 27th November 2005 > **···** > > ========================================== > >    Ruby Weekly News is a summary of the week's activity on the ruby-talk >    mailing list / the comp.lang.ruby newsgroup, brought to you by Anonymous. >    (Thanks whoever it was, this week's newsletter would have been a no-show >    without you.) > >    [Contribute to the next newsletter.] > > # Articles and Announcements > >      \* The Ruby Grammar Project >      -------------------------- > >        MenTaLguY announced the creation of The Ruby Grammar Project, the goal >        of which is to produce a formal specification for Ruby's syntax and an >        ANTLR grammar. His aim is to describe the language as it exists, >        rather than proposing new syntax. > >      \* Distributing Rails Applications (tutorial) >      -------------------------------------------- > >        Erik Veenstra announces a new version of his tutorial, Distributing >        Rails Applications, updated for rails 0.14.3. > >      \* Frappr! map for ruby-lang >      --------------------------- > >        Daniel Cremer has created a Frappr! map for ruby-lang. > >      \* RailsConf 2006, June 22-25, Chicago IL >      ---------------------------------------- > >        \> Ruby Central, Inc. is pleased to announce the First International >        \> Rails Conference ([http://railsconf.org](http://railsconf.org)). The conference will be held >        \> in Chicago, IL, USA from June 22-25, 2006. >        \> >        \> Brought to you by the same organization that has driven RubyConf for >        \> five years running, RailsConf is destined to be a one-of-a-kind >        \> affair. >        \> >        \> We already have David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Rails as >        \> well as Dave Thomas, of The Pragmatic Programmers, lined up as >        \> keynote speakers. Watch this space for more, exciting speaker >        \> announcements as we get closer to the event. >        \> >        \> Registration will be limited, so be sure to subscribe to our RSS >        \> feed to be notified when registration opens. We're expecting the >        \> conference to sell out. Don't let yourself be one of the unlucky >        \> ones that misses the cutoff! >        \> >        \> This is your chance to be part of history. Be there for the FIRST >        \> one. Get the t-shirt. 😉 > > # User Group News > >      \* Not-yet Phoenix.rb >      -------------------- > >        James Britt writes: > >        \> The 2nd meeting of Refresh Phoenix will be held on Tuesday, December >        \> 6, at the Common Ground coffee house in Scottsdale, AZ. >        \> >        \> Refresh Phoenix is a community of designers and developers working >        \> to refresh the creative, technical, and professional culture of >        \> Internet developers in the Phoenix metropolitan area. >        \> >        \> At the first meeting earlier this month there was strong showing of >        \> people either currently using Ruby, or looking to get started. >        \> Refresh Phoenix isn't specifically about Ruby, but is a means for >        \> helping designers and developers organize projects and meetings, and >        \> I plan to use this next meeting to reboot the Phoenix Ruby Users >        \> Group (AKA Phoenix.rb). >        \> >        \> Where: >        \> >        \> Common Grounds Coffee House >        \> 8658 E Shea Blvd # 1, Scottsdale, AZ >        \> (480) 222-4870 >        \> >        \> [http://rubyurl.com/qck](http://rubyurl.com/qck) >        \> >        \> When: >        \> >        \> On Tuesday, December, 6th from 6-8pm, though the semi-official stuff >        \> starts around 7pm. >        \> >        \> More info: >        \> >        \> [http://refreshphoenix.org/](http://refreshphoenix.org/) > > # Quote of the Week > >        MenTaLguY on the Ruby Grammar Project: > >        \> Don't like -\>{} ? Don't look at us. If matz says we get stabby >        \> blocks, we get stabby blocks. > > # Threads > >   warning: default `to\_a' will be obsolete >   ---------------------------------------- > >    David Corbin wonders what to use in place of foo.to\_a, now that >    Object#to\_a is being obsoleted. > >    Christian Neukirchen suggests [\*foo]. > >    James Edward Gray II recommends Array( foo ). > >    Either one works identically to the former foo.to\_a, returning the same >    object if it is already an array. > >    Trans belatedly recommends Array[foo] instead, but Markus Koenig points >    out that his suggestion is equivalent to [foo], not to [\*foo]. > >   system() on windows >   ------------------- > >    system() can behave very differently on Windows; different Rubyists >    present explanations and workarounds. > >   PLATFORM tests >   -------------- > >    Kaspar Schiess raises the prospect writing of a library which can be used >    to test platform strings to determine whether the program is running on >    some flavor of Windows or Unix, since there are so many possible >    variations. > >    Several other posters point out that it is better to test for specific >    features and fall back as needed, rather than make assumptions based on >    the platform string (which can be misleading or ambiguous). > >    As Kero succinctly puts it: "Duck platforming" > >   problem with .each do >   --------------------- > >    Lady Michelle Bhaal writes in concerning a Net::HTTP snippet: > >    \> Hiya. The book does things this way, so why doesn't it work for me? >    \> What's going on? > >    Lloyd Zusman replies: > >    \> It turns out that Net::Http#get no longer returns a pair of values. It >    \> has changed between ruby version 1.6 (from the edition of the book that >    \> you probably have) and 1.8. This is explained in the method's latest >    \> documentation... >    \> >    \> In version 1.1 (ruby 1.6), this method returns a pair of objects, a >    \> Net::HTTPResponse object and the entity body string. In version 1.2 >    \> (ruby 1.8), this method returns a Net::HTTPResponse object. > >   recursion >   --------- > >    cyberco writes: > >    \> I'm trying to print every combination of three characters from the range >    \> (a..z). I thought recursion would be the most elegant solution, but that >    \> got me quite confused 🙂 Any suggestions? > >    Erik Terpstra responds: > > ('aaa'..'zzz').to\_a > >    \> Or 'a'..'zzz' if you want every combination `up to' 3 characters. > >    Not recursive, but certainly elegant. > >    Other posters presented a variety of recursive solutions. > >   Symbol#inspect bug? >   ------------------- > >    Dominik Bathon notices that Symbol#inspect doesn't always return a valid >    symbol literal. For example: > > irb(main):001:0\> p :"9" > :9 > =\> nil > irb(main):002:0\> :9 > SyntaxError: compile error > (irb):2: syntax error >           from (irb):2 > >    matz reports that this is fixed in Ruby 1.8.4. > >   valgrind and embedded ruby >   -------------------------- > >    Heiko Leberer notices that Ruby is producing warnings under valgrind when >    allocation exceeds a certain threshold. He wonders whether he is doing >    something wrong, or whether this is a Ruby bug. > >    The answer appears to be the warnings are a side-effect of the marking >    process used by Ruby's garbage collector, and are harmless. > > # New Releases > >   Turing 0.0.7 >   ------------ > >    Michal announces Turing 0.0.7, an easy-to-use and extensible Captcha >    implementation. Turing provides not only image-based Captchas, but also a >    textual Turing::Challenge which should be more friendly to >    visually-impaired users. > >   ruby/audio 0.1.0 >   ---------------- > >    ruby/audio is a convenience wrapper around NArray and libsndfile. It >    should make audio work in Ruby much, much easier. > >   Puppet Beta Two >   --------------- > >    Luke Kanies announced the second beta release of Puppet, a Ruby-based >    server automation framework. > >    \> It lets you centrally manage every important aspect of your system using >    \> a cross-platform specification language that manages all the separate >    \> elements normally aggregated in different files, like users, cron jobs, >    \> and hosts, along with obviously discrete elements like packages, >    \> services, and files. > >    The new version boasts significantly expanded functionality and cfengine >    integration to ease migration. > >   Rant 0.5.0 >   ---------- > >    Rant is a flexible build tool written entirely in Ruby, similar to Rake. > >   RRobots 0.1 >   ----------- > >    Following on fron last week's thread, Simon Kröger introduces RRobots, his >    Ruby variation on the fighting-code-robots theme. > >    \> RRobots is a simulation environment for robots, these robots have a >    \> scanner and a gun, can move forward and backwards and are entirely >    \> controlled by ruby scripts. All robots are equal (well at the moment, >    \> maybe this will change) except for the ai. > >   xampl 0.1.0 >   ----------- > >    Xampl is a tool for developing Ruby programs. It facilitates the `M' part >    of an MVC architecture. It is meant to be very easy to use, supportive of >    idiomatic Ruby usage, and mostly invisible. It is similar to some parts of >    J2EE. > >   win32-service 0.5.0 >   ------------------- > >    win32-service is a library for writing Windows services in Ruby, and is >    part of the Win32Utils project. > >    This version introduces a service\_init hook which can be used for >    long-running initialization tasks which would otherwise cause the service >    to timeout on startup. is a library for writing Windows services in Ruby, >    and is part of the Win32Utils project. > >    This version introduces a service\_init hook which can be used for >    long-running initialization tasks which would otherwise cause the service >    to timeout on startup. > >   RWB 0.2.0 >   --------- > >    Pat Eyler announces the release of Ruby Web Bench 0.2.0. RWB is "a Ruby >    library designed to let you run performance/load tests against a >    webserver/website."