Turnout wasn’t as good as last month’s, but that only meant

more pizza and booze for us!

Screenshot again with my depressing lotto app:

Overall, it’s ok, especially with the Explorer plugin. However, there are still a bunch of stuff I’d nitpick about:

• Split screen is limited to 2 screens. Which is weird limitation considering both vim and emacs can do an infinite number of them.
• EOL symbols are ugly and can’t be modified.
• No Haml support yet.

This post by Bryan Bibat is from existence, refactored.

This post by Greg Moreno is from Greg Moreno.

>> Float('3.14159')
=> 3.14159 
>> '3.14159'.to_f
=> 3.14159 

# However, Float() method will return an exception if given
# a bad input while to_f() will ignore everything from the 
# offending character.

>> Float('3.x14159')
ArgumentError: invalid value for Float(): "3.x14159"
	from (irb):4:in 'Float'
	from (irb):4

>> '3.x14159'.to_f
=> 3.0


# Similar case with to_i() and Integer().

>> Integer('19x69')
ArgumentError: invalid value for Integer(): "19x69"
	from (irb):15:in 'Integer'
	from (irb):15
	from /Users/greg/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p0/bin/irb:17:in '<main>'

>> '19x69'.to_i
=> 19 

Case insensitive regular expression

# Regex is case sensitive by default. 
# Adding 'i' for insensitive match
puts 'matches' if  /AM/i =~ 'am'

Hash is ordered in 1.9

# new syntax in 1.9
h = {first: 'a', second: 'b', third: 'c'}

# hashes in 1.9 are ordered
h.each do |e|
  pp e
end

Filter a list using several conditions

conditions = [
    proc { |i| i > 5 },
    proc { |i| (i % 2).zero? },
    proc { |i| (i % 3).zero? }
  ]

matches = (1..100).select do |i|
  conditions.all? { |c| c[i] }
end

Randomly pick an element from an array

>> [1,2,3,4,5].sample
=> 2 
>> [1,2,3,4,5].sample
=> 1 

# pick 2 random elements

>> [1,2,3,4,5].sample(2)
=> [1, 5]

List methods unique to a class

# List all instance methods that starts with 're' 
# including those inherited by String.

>> String.instance_methods.grep /^re/
=> [:replace, :reverse, :reverse!, :respond_to?, :respond_to_missing?] 

# List methods unique to String, i.e. not include 
# those defined by its ancestors.

>> String.instance_methods(false).grep /^re/
=> [:replace, :reverse, :reverse!]

Globbing key-value pairs

>> h = Hash['a', 1, 'b', 2]
=> {"a"=>1, "b"=>2}

>> h = Hash[ [ ['a', 1], ['b', 2] ] ] 
=> {"a"=>1, "b"=>2}

>> h = Hash[ 'a' => 1, 'b' => 2 ]
=> {"a"=>1, "b"=>2}

# The first form is very useful for globbing key-value pairs in Rails’ routes. For example, if you have the following:

# route definition in Rails 3
match 'items/*specs' => 'items#specs'

# sample url
http://localhost:3000/items/year/1969/month/7/day/21

# params[:specs] will be set

>> params[:specs]
=> "year/1969/month/7/day/21"

>> h = Hash[*params[:specs].split('/')]
=> {"year"=>"1969", "month"=>"7", "day"=>"21"}

This post by Greg Moreno is from Greg Moreno.

ffnpdf, a tool that converts FanFiction.net stories into PDF files.

(Great for putting your favorite Harry Potter slash fics on your mobile phone or tablet for portable use! LOL)

The code and documentation are found at the Github page. Theoretically, this gem can work anywhere Ruby, pandoc, and XeTeX can be installed (e.g. Windows, OS X, *nix) but I’ve only been able to make the whole thing work in Ubuntu/Mint.

Demo and how-tos are posted in this playlist:

I haven’t gotten around to make a license for this, but I assume that anyone into fanfiction knows that publishing and selling fanfics without consent from the rights owner is a big no-no. Thus, I don’t need remind them that this tool is just for personal use and not for commercial purposes.

This post by Bryan Bibat is from existence, refactored.

As promised, here’s the game I made for the Global Game Jam.

Seeing that I couldn’t think of a quick web-based game matching the theme “Ouroboros”, I just went ahead with a joke I made sometime after the Ruby Rumble:

Sa susunod na Rumble, gagawa ako ng hentai game sa Ruby!
(For the next Rumble, I’ll make a hentai game in Ruby!)

So yeah, that’s how I ended up with a Visual Novel. Unfortunately for the people expecting sexually explicit scenes (which was about a third of the people who saw the game), the “game” I made was more ATLUS/Capcom than Key/Type-Moon.

Anyway, it’s more of a tech demo than a game, with me trying to implement a Cloud-based multi-platform visual novel with psychological themes and non-standard tactical RPG gameplay. Or in non-buzzword speak, an HTML5 adventure game playable over the internet.

Play it here.

Please use fake email addresses so you could view the changes when you change the answers to the initial questions.

–

Some boring technical details:

• Back end is a basic Rails 3.2 + MySQL stack
• Used vn-canvas as the HTML 5 visual novel engine
• Stock VN backgrounds from mao space

I didn’t release the code because of how ridiculously horrible it is. I mean, using GET to update state, WTF?!?

This post by Bryan Bibat is from existence, refactored.

Peter Cooper will share more tips in his book to be released later this year. Stay tune and don’t forget to leave your email address to get updates at http://rubyreloaded.com/trickshots/

Here are some of the tips in the video.

Generate random numbers within a given range

irb(main):019:0> rand(10..20)
=> 12
irb(main):020:0> rand(10...20) # works with exclusive range
=> 16

Dump your object using awesome_print

# Install the gem first
gem install awesome_print

irb(main):001:0> require 'ap'
=> true
irb(main):002:0> ap :a => 1, :b => 'greg', :c => [1,2,3]
{
    :a => 1,
    :b => "greg",
    :c => [
        [0] 1,
        [1] 2,
        [2] 3
    ]
}
=> {:a=>1, :b=>"greg", :c=>[1, 2, 3]}

Concatenating strings

irb(main):005:0> "abc" + "def"
=> "abcdef"
irb(main):006:0> "abc".concat("def")
=> "abcdef"
irb(main):007:0> x = "abc" "def"
=> "abcdef"

Include modules in a single line

class MyClass
  include Module1, Module2, Module3
  # However, the modules are included in reverse order. Confusing eh!
end

Instance variable interpolation

irb(main):008:0> @name = "greg"
=> "greg"
irb(main):009:0> "my name is #{@name}"
=> "my name is greg"
irb(main):010:0> "my name is #@name"
=> "my name is greg"

I still prefer the use curly braces.

Syntax checking

➜  ruby -c facu.rb 
facu.rb:12: syntax error, unexpected keyword_end, expecting $end

Zipping arrays

irb(main):027:0> names = %w(fred jess john)
=> ["fred", "jess", "john"]
irb(main):028:0> ages = [38, 47,91]
=> [38, 47, 91]
irb(main):029:0> locations = %w(spain france usa)
=> ["spain", "france", "usa"]
irb(main):030:0> names.zip(ages)
=> [["fred", 38], ["jess", 47], ["john", 91]]
irb(main):031:0> names.zip(ages, locations)
=> [["fred", 38, "spain"], ["jess", 47, "france"], ["john", 91, "usa"]]

Range into arrays

irb(main):034:0> (10..20).to_a  # what I used to do
=> [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]
irb(main):035:0> [*10..20]
=> [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Using parameter as default value

irb(main):047:0> def method(a, b=a); "#{a} #{b}"; end
=> nil
irb(main):048:0> method 1
=> "1 1"
irb(main):049:0> method 1, 2
=> "1 2"

Put regex match in a variable

irb(main):058:0> s = "Greg Moreno"
=> "Greg Moreno"
irb(main):059:0> /(?<first>\w+) (?<second>\w+)/ =~ s
=> 0
irb(main):060:0> first
=> "Greg"
irb(main):061:0> second
=> "Moreno"

This post by Greg Moreno is from Greg Moreno.

My Game Jam post is waaay overdue but some stuff happened this week (impromptu upgrade, server migration) so I’ll only get around to post about it probably later today.

Anyway, this post is just about the new version up over at RailsFTW. This experimental build is based on TCS’s patched Ruby build which boasted a ~200% increase in performance.

See it for yourself:

This post by Bryan Bibat is from existence, refactored.