I want to use Ruby to implement something very much like Active Record, but I’m a Ruby newbie. What I most need to understand is dynamic Ruby, from which it’s said the language derives much of its power. So I read and reread the relevant chapters of the Pickaxe book, which are clear enough on the ‘how,’ but not so much on the ‘why.’ That is, the book adequately explains how to use certain dynamic features, but not why and when I would want to use them. I’ve also been lurking on why the lucky stiff’s blog, which is chock full of clever, dynamic stuff. I could mostly follow the dynamic bit of why’s (poignant) guide to Ruby, but I wasn’t truly internalizing it; I was not grokking it.
Long post today, so I made it its own page. If you want some help grokking idiomatic dynamic Ruby, check it out.
