fr Arnaud:
Can I do nicer than:
{1…y}.each do |y|
{1…x}.each do |x|
the_name = name + y.to_s + x.to_s
end
end
your code is already nice. it is readable to me.
“nicer” is difficult to measure 
if you do not like the “…” notation and
if you do not like the to_s conversion,
you can eg do something like,
cat test.rb
y=3
x=4
1.upto(y) do |i|
1.upto(x) do |j|
puts “rack#{i}#{j}”
end
end
or
y.times do |i|
x.times do |j|
puts “rack#{i+1}#{j+1}”
end
end
ruby test.rb
rack11
rack12
rack13
rack14
rack21
rack22
rack23
rack24
rack31
rack32
rack33
rack34
kind regards -botp