Has anyone heard of this Ruby project?

Rails
1

If it’s true. It sounds like some pretty wild stuff. Anyone care to
comment about this?

2

On 21 December 2014 at 20:55, Star L. [email protected]
wrote:

GitHub - LouHenryAlvarez/jackbox: Modular Closures: Ruby Code Injectors

If it’s true. It sounds like some pretty wild stuff. Anyone care to comment
about this?

Am I being overly cynical or are you the author of jackbox?

Colin

3

On Sunday, 21 December 2014 15:55:26 UTC-5, Star L. wrote:

GitHub - LouHenryAlvarez/jackbox: Modular Closures: Ruby Code Injectors

If it’s true. It sounds like some pretty wild stuff. Anyone care to
comment about this?

I’ll “comment” that this is the second place I’ve run across this, which
is
pretty remarkable for a project that currently contains specs but no
implementation. ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN

As to the functionality, an awful lot of what’s proposed there sounds
like
things you could do more clearly using modules / concerns directly. Hard
to
say for sure without code.

–Matt J.

4

I am not the author. But, I am having some trouble trying to understand
it. There is currently, I think only the binary implementation form
http://rubygems.org, but looking into the actual gem it seems there are
some c extensions.

My concern comes from the following code from the github posting:

cup = Coffee.new.enrich(milk).enrich(sprinkles).enrich(sprinkles)

or even…

cup = Coffee.new.enrich milk, sprinkles, sprinkles

cup.cost.should == 2.10
cup.should be_instance_of(Coffee)
cup.injectors.should == [:milk, :sprinkles, :sprinkles]

What does this mean?

5

On Friday, 26 December 2014 17:56:39 UTC-5, Matt J. wrote:

The barrage of “announcement” posts across rails-talk, ruby, ruby-dev, and
ruby-core certainly haven’t helped make a positive impression.

A final addon: the thing doesn’t even WORK. Brand-new Ruby install on a
brand-new Vagrant VM:

vagrant@precise32:~$ irb
irb(main):001:0> require ‘jackbox’
TypeError: can’t create instance of singleton class
from
/home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox.rb:188:in
new' from /home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox.rb:188:inblock (2 levels) in decorate’
from
/home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox.rb:51:in
suppress_warnings' from /home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox.rb:179:inblock in decorate’
from
/home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox.rb:208:in
[]' from /home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox.rb:208:indecorate’
from
/home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox/examples/dir.rb:18:in
block in <class:Dir>' from /home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox/examples/dir.rb:17:inclass_eval’
from
/home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox/examples/dir.rb:17:in
<class:Dir>' from /home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox/examples/dir.rb:15:in<top (required)>’
from
/home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox.rb:404:in
require_relative' from /home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox.rb:404:in’
from
/home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox.rb:2:in
RGLoader_load' from /home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox.rb:2:in<top (required)>’
from
/home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:135:in
require' from /home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:135:inrescue in require’
from
/home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/2.1.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:144:in
require' from (irb):1 from /home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/bin/irb:11:in’

System info:

vagrant@precise32:~$ ruby -v
ruby 2.1.5p273 (2014-11-13 revision 48405) [i686-linux]

vagrant@precise32:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise

I’d add that EVEN IF THIS WORKED, it would be terrible - it’s loading
the
file from lib/jackbox/examples/dir.rb, which redefines - ahem,
“decorates”

  • methods of the stdlib Dir class to have entirely different semantics.
    For
    instance, Dir.new(some_path) now writes to the filesystem…

Some of the rest, on further examination, feels like over-abstraction /
sugaring. For instance, here’s how lets is implemented:

def lets(sym = nil, &block)
if sym.class == Symbol
define_method(sym, &block)
else
sym ? sym : block
end
rescue StandardError
raise LetsError
end

(BTW: RubyEncoder just makes this harder, not impossible. Not even
particularly difficult, once you get used to reading YARV bytecode.
RubyVM::InstructionSequence.disasm FTW!)

Digging into this, the first example for lets is USELESS. lets bar =->(arg){ arg * arg } is actually parsed as lets(bar = ->(arg){ arg * arg }). This works, but lets does exactly fuckall since the actual
local-variable-setting part is a side-effect of its argument.

Other fun things, in no particular order:

  • attempting an install on Ruby 1.9.3 fails, since the gem was built
    expecting byebug to be available but that gem requires Ruby 2.0.0. The
    gemspec appears to be attempting to deal with this by including a
    conditional on RUBY_VERSION, but that code runs at gem-build time, not
    gem-load time. :frowning:

  • with appears to work by decorating method_missing, using
    instance_exec on the target, and then undecorating. Bonus points if
    you
    wondered what happens if the block exits the scope abnormally (via
    raise
    or throw).

  • the directory example reimplements Dir.exists? to do exactly the same
    thing as the Ruby version, only in Ruby instead of C. This is unlikely
    to
    be a performance issue, but it makes one wonder why it was included at
    all.

  • disassembly of the included libraries shows additional oddities -
    there
    are two Mach-O format libs (ext/jackbox/jackbox.so and
    ext/jackbox/jackbox.bundle) and a DLL, but no corresponding library for
    Linux. The OS X libraries also don’t appear to DO anything - just FFI
    stubs
    and utility functions.

  • I’ll leave the detailed object-oriented theory criticisms to somebody
    who’s passionate about it, but some of the examples seem like classic
    is-a
    / has-a reversals to my eye. A Spaceship isn’t a fuel line, or a capsule

it HAS those things. Mixins seem like the exactly wrong choice for that
case.

  • there’s a namespace whose purpose I’m still unclear on under
    Jackbox::Meta::Abstract and Jackbox::Meta::DSL. Neither of the latter
    have
    (at first inspection) any methods of interest.

  • needless to say, thanks to the RubyEncoder non-security garbage, the
    gem
    doesn’t even WORK on 2.2.0.

LHA, if you’re reading this, you’ve got some interesting ideas. You need
to
work on packaging and presentation, though - shipping useless binary
extensions and obfuscated source isn’t going to endear you to many
people.
It would be a great deal easier to discuss these ideas without having to
trawl through YARV disassembly.

–Matt J.

6

On Sunday, 21 December 2014 15:55:26 UTC-5, Star L. wrote:

GitHub - LouHenryAlvarez/jackbox: Modular Closures: Ruby Code Injectors

If it’s true. It sounds like some pretty wild stuff. Anyone care to
comment about this?

Followup to my original comment: the Github page only has specs.
Rubygems
has a gem, but it’s got binary components without source and obfuscated
source (RubyEncoder). I certainly wouldn’t load this code anyplace that
wasn’t heavily sandboxed. I have no evidence that it’s malicious, but
have
the same amount that it isn’t.

There’s some interesting ideas in there, but nothing interesting enough
that I’d want to bring un-debuggable, un-updatable mystery code in that
also locks me to MRI.

The barrage of “announcement” posts across rails-talk, ruby, ruby-dev,
and
ruby-core certainly haven’t helped make a positive impression.

–Matt J.

7

Well, I tried on my Unix box running Ruby 2.1.1 and 1.9.3 through RVM
and it worked on both platforms. I also ran the specs provided with the
gem after I copied them to a woking folder and I got no errors. But of
course we have to wonder, what is the nature of this project?

Anyone care to comment on their experience?

Star

8

On Tuesday, 30 December 2014 15:49:09 UTC-5, Ruby-Forum.com User wrote:

Well, I tried on my Unix box running Ruby 2.1.1 and 1.9.3 through RVM
and I woke on both platforms. I also ran the specs provided with the
gem after I copied them to a woking folder and I got no errors. But of
course we have to wonder, what is the nature of this project?

Sock puppets gotta sock, yo.

–Matt J.

9

“enhance the Ruby language and/or provide additional software
constructs” sounds like a really, really bad idea.

Every Ruby dev trying to re-invent the wheel is exactly why Ruby has the
(poor) reputation that it has in some circles.

If it’s true. It sounds like some pretty wild stuff. Anyone care to comment
about this?
vagrant@precise32:~$ irb
from
/home/vagrant/.rbenv/versions/2.1.5/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/jackbox-0.9.3.1/lib/jackbox/examples/dir.rb:17:in
`class:Dir’

Codename: precise
sym ? sym : block

Jason Fleetwood-Boldt
[email protected]

All material © Jason Fleetwood-Boldt 2014. Public conversations may be
turned into blog posts (original poster information will be made
anonymous). Email [email protected] with questions/concerns about
this.

10

On Jan 4, 2015, at 2:49 PM, Star L. [email protected] wrote:

YOU seem to have an ANGER MANAGEMENT problem! Why don’t you let the guy
peddle his stuff. Then MAYBE you can go an do your own instead of
trying to down talk or even worse steel someone else’s work.

Nobody is stealing anything. And nobody here objects to anyone who
peddles their stuff honestly.

–
Scott R.
[email protected]
http://www.elevated-dev.com/
(303) 722-0567 voice

11

YOU seem to have an ANGER MANAGEMENT problem! Why don’t you let the guy
peddle his stuff. Then MAYBE you can go an do your own instead of
trying to down talk or even worse steel someone else’s work.

See yo,

Star L

12

Oh, so now the guys at Jackbox are the dishonest ones!!

Who are the ones bad mouthing them while on the flip side trying to
de-compile the product.

We for one find Jackbox to be pretty cool stuff, and we here at CAS will
be using in one of our upcoming projects even under the current
licensing.

And, if the guys at Jackbox want some money for the license, as long as
it is WITHIN REASON we will gladly pay it.

Star L

13

Well, I know this is just feeding the troll, but eventually it can get
pretty difficult to resist…

On Tuesday, December 23, 2014 at 9:36:35 PM UTC-5, Ruby-Forum.com User
wrote:

I am not the author. But, I am having some trouble trying to
understand it.

[snip one of the dumbest examples I have ever seen]

What does this mean?

On Friday, January 23, 2015 at 5:19:23 PM UTC-5, Ruby-Forum.com User
wrote:

We for one find Jackbox to be pretty cool stuff, and we here at CAS will
be using in one of our upcoming projects

I have to admit I find it amusing that you are talking both about the
trouble you are having understanding it, and also how you think it is
cool
and will be using it in your project. Too bad for the client, I
suppose…maybe they like sprinkles in their coffee too.

Jim

14

Thanks Star we will try to keep it WITHIN REASON… Right now its free!

I think they’re on to us though… lol

15

Jim,

I invite you to check this page:

Thanks