h1. Dan's Ruby Style Guide

h2. Introduction

Consistent source is great. Especially on multi-developer projects, it
really helps to be able to open a file you may or may not have written
and know it's going to look similar with everything else in the
project. If it doesn't, it can distract you and take concentration away
from what you should really be working on.

Spend some extra time before committing (or, better yet, while writing)
code that goes along with the project you're working on and it will be
much easier to come back and change in the future.

h2. General Rules

There are a few things that affect the source as a whole.

* Indent code two spaces at a time
* Use underscores for separation in variable/method names
* Use <code>&&</code> and <code>||</code> instead of
  <code>and</code> and <code>or</code>
* Lines should kept under 80 columns wide
* Use single blank lines between methods, classes, etc.
* Care should be taken to avoid erroneous whitespace

h2. Strings

* Use <code>'</code> (single quotes) for strings that don't need interpolation and
  <code>"</code> (double quotes) for strings that do. Example:

<code>
<pre>
  simple_string = 'one'
  complex_string = "complex string #{simple_string}"
</pre>
</code>


h2. Arrays

* Use <code>[]</code> to define an empty/new Array
* Use <code>[element_1, element_2, ...]</code> to define a new Array with elements

h2. Hashes

* Use <code>{}</code> to define an empty/new Hash
* Use <code>{ :foo => :bar }</code> (note spacing) to define a new Hash with
  keys and values
* Avoid extra braces. Example: <code>my_hash.update(:x => 'y')</code> instead of
  <code>my_hash.update({ :x => 'y' })</code>

h2. Blocks

Since there are two ways to define blocks
(<code>{ .. }</code> and <code>do ... end</code>) it can be hard to decide
which variation to use and when. I use <code>{ ... }</code> for simple and
short blocks that fit under 80 columns, such as:

<code>
<pre>
  the_thing = things.detect {|t| t.foo? }
</pre>
</code>

For more complex blocks, even ones that fit in 80 columns, I use
<code>do ... end</code>, such as:

<code>
<pre>
  the_thing = things.detect do |thing|
    thing.blue? && thing.bright?
  end
</pre>
</code>

h2. Classes

* Indent methods below <code>protected</code>, <code>private</code>, or
  <code>public</code>. Example:

<code>
<pre>
  class MyClass
    def my_public_method
      ...
    end
    
    protected
      def my_protected_method
        ...
      end
  end
</pre>
</code>