greetings Rubyists,
Still trying to wrap my head around metaprogramming.
def analyze(args)
stuff
total is defined up here and is equal to some amount of seconds
elapsed (say 100,000)
day, hour, min = 0, 0, 0
loop do day += 1; total -= 86400; break if total < 0; end; day -= 1;
total += 86400
loop do hour += 1; total -= 3600; break if total < 0; end; hour -=
1; total += 3600
loop do min += 1; total -= 60; break if total < 0; end; min -= 1;
total += 60
puts “your total is #{day} days, #{hour} hours, #{min} mins,
#{total} secs”
end
as you can see, i’d like to refactor that so i just have to
dotime( :day, 86400 )
dotime( :hour, 3600 )
dotime( :min, 60 ) (i can hardcode ‘total’ in the
function, doesn’t matter?)
But no eval I use works, either the eval isn’t defined for my class
(assume main:Object) or I get "no method for + (nilpointer). I read
about how you shouldn’t use string eval, etc. A simple pointer to
some help would be awesome! Thanks guys.
PS, if a time function does this, don’t spoil the metaprogramming for
me? I’d like to learn anyway. 
-Mike
