On Mar 31, 2:38 pm, Robert Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > Jules Copeland wrote: > > I just don't see the point in adding an extra layer of abstraction where > > there doesn't need to be one... > > I'd suggest picking another battle to fight. This one is arbitrary and > unimportant. It's not a battle you can win. You're focusing the blame > for bad tutorial examples in the wrong place anyway. > > The use of foo as a variable placeholder is no difference than using x > in mathematics to represent a reference to an arbitrary value. There are > a lot of people that also have trouble with this abstraction and find > algebra difficult to grasp. That does not mean that math instructors > should stop using x, y and z as abstract placeholders to unknown values > in a equation.
I think there is a difference between the case when the two variables are genuinely independant as opposed to one where there is some relationship between the two *and* that relationship is an inherent part of the example being discussed (and where I doing maths I would convey that by using x_a and x_b or x and x' or something like that). I also wouldn't try and be needlessly obtuse ie foos = Foo.all bars = Bar.find ... rather than bar = Foo.all baz = Bar.find ... Fred -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.
