# Adding sugar to Ruby **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 6, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-sugar-to-ruby/192851 "2010-08-06T21:41:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7c8e57/32.png) [@rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbjl)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-sugar-to-ruby/192851/1 "2010-08-06T21:41:40Z")
Hi, I’ve collected some nice little additions to Ruby and put them in a gem called zucker. Some of the features: - control structure like iteration: iterate [1,2], [3,4,5] do |e,f| puts “#{e},#{f}” end # outputs # 1,3 # 2,4 # ,5 - Regexp.union shortcut /Ruby\d/ | /test/i | “cheat” # creates a Regexp similar to: # /(Ruby\d|[tT][eE][sS][tT]|cheat)/ - Blocks, where nil can be egocentric egonil do nil.some\_methods.that[:do].not.exist end # =\> nil - Array#to\_proc [1,2,3].map &[:\*, 5] # =\> [5, 10, 15] - More at [http://rubyzucker.info](http://rubyzucker.info) / [GitHub - janlelis/sugar\_refinery: Tiny refinements for Ruby](http://github.com/janlelis/zucker) What’s your opinion about these methods? J-\_-L ---
**Author:** ![rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7c8e57/32.png) [@rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbjl)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-sugar-to-ruby/192851/2 "2010-08-07T03:03:38Z")
> - Regexp.union shortcut > > /Ruby\d/ | /test/i | “cheat” > > # creates a Regexp similar to: > > # /(Ruby\d|[tT][eE][sS][tT]|cheat)/ > > What’s your opinion about these methods? I like the regex one. ---
**Author:** ![rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7c8e57/32.png) [@rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbjl)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-sugar-to-ruby/192851/3 "2010-08-07T05:05:54Z")
On Aug 6, 2:41 pm, Jan L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hi, I’ve collected some nice little additions to Ruby and put them in a > gem called zucker. I was going to give it a try, but when I installed it (sudo gem install zucker), I only ended up with the /var/lib/gems/1.8 directories and none of the /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/ directories. I’m running Linux Mint 9. $ gem -v 1.3.5 $ ruby -v ruby 1.8.7 (2010-01-10 patchlevel 249) [i486-linux] ---
**Author:** ![rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7c8e57/32.png) [@rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbjl)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-sugar-to-ruby/192851/4 "2010-08-07T22:00:49Z")
On 08/06/2010 12:41 PM, Jan L. wrote: > # outputs > > - Blocks, where nil can be egocentric > > What’s your opinion about these methods? I like the way you think 🙂 These feel like a natural progression, although I admit the array to proc is a bit hacky (but useful). Mike ---
**Author:** ![rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7c8e57/32.png) [@rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbjl)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-sugar-to-ruby/192851/5 "2010-08-08T00:28:54Z")
Thank you all for your feedback 🙂 Benoit D. wrote: > I extended a bit the concept to allow multiple syntax: > [Classes/to\_proc.rb at master · eregon/Classes · GitHub](http://github.com/eregon/Classes/blob/master/to_proc.rb) > I would not use any of these for serious code, however. I like the chaining idea 😉 @yermej Looks like if something is wrong with your Rubygems installation. Did you install it from the repositories or from source? J-\_-L ---
**Author:** ![rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7c8e57/32.png) [@rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbjl)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-sugar-to-ruby/192851/6 "2010-08-07T13:11:04Z")
Hi, On 6 August 2010 21:41, Jan L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > # outputs > > # 1,3 > > # 2,4 > > # ,5 [3,4,5].zip([1,2]).each { |e,f| puts “#{f},#{e}” } would do the same (the reverse order is needed to get the extra value). It is definitely better looking than something like Vector#each2, though. > - Regexp.union shortcut > > /Ruby\d/ | /test/i | “cheat” > > # creates a Regexp similar to: > > # /(Ruby\d|[tT][eE][sS][tT]|cheat)/ Looks like syntactic sugar. I would need a real use-case to see if it is really better. You can already do something like this: case str when /Ruby\d/, /test/i, “cheat” end > - Blocks, where nil can be egocentric > > egonil do > nil.some\_methods.that[:do].not.exist > end # =\> nil > > - Array#to\_proc > > [1,2,3].map &[:\*, 5] # =\> [5, 10, 15] That is rather cool ! I extended a bit the concept to allow multiple syntax: > I would not use any of these for serious code, however. > - More at [http://rubyzucker.info](http://rubyzucker.info) / [GitHub - janlelis/sugar\_refinery: Tiny refinements for Ruby](http://github.com/janlelis/zucker) > > What’s your opinion about these methods? > > J-\_-L Some nice hacks and ideas. I guess some real examples would help to see the utility of it. ---
**Author:** ![rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7c8e57/32.png) [@rbjl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbjl)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-sugar-to-ruby/192851/7 "2010-08-08T02:10:45Z")
On Aug 7, 5:28 pm, Jan L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > installation. Did you install it from the repositories or from source? > > J-\_-L Yeah, looks like something is wrong with my machine. I’ve used gems in the past on this machine, but I must have broken something.