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There's a lot to Ruby and even experienced Rubyists are sometimes surprised to learn about parts of the language they haven't encountered before. Do you really know all of the syntax Ruby can read? Are you familiar with all of the methods provided in Ruby's core? Have you used all of the roughly 100 standard libraries? In this talk, I'll dig into the extras of Ruby and see if I can't turn up some features that you don't see all of the time, but that might just be handy to know about anyway. I'll make sure you come out of this able to impress your friends at the hackfest. Help us caption & translate this video! http://amara.org/v/FGfq/
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In the video titled 'Ten Things You Didn't Know You Could Do,' James Edward Gray II presents an engaging exploration of lesser-known features in the Ruby programming language. The talk aims to uncover unique and useful functionalities that even experienced Rubyists might not be aware of. Gray introduces a variety of topics, breaking them down into practical categories and showcasing how these hidden features can enhance coding efficiency and creativity. ### Key Points Discussed: - **Compiler Tricks**: Gray explains how Ruby can execute code with the -X switch, the use of the special IO object 'data,' and how Ruby can treat anything under underscore underscore as ignorable junk. - **Tail Call Optimization**: He discusses Ruby's tail call optimization, which is off by default and how users can enable this feature for improved recursive method performance. - **Syntax Shortcuts**: Examples include the usage of `super` to pass values to parent classes, and how blocks can now take blocks, enhancing metaprogramming capabilities. - **Regular Expressions**: Ruby 1.9 introduced named groups in regex, allowing developers to refer to groups by name, simplifying pattern matching. - **Data Structures and Methods**: The ability to create nested structures, utilize hashes efficiently with the 'fetch' method, and methods like 'zip', 'chunk', and 'flat_map' to enhance data manipulation. - **Standard Library Features**: Includes discussions on the 'open-uri' module for reading web content like files and the usefulness of 'fileutils' for file handling tasks. - **Meta Programming**: Gray highlights the construction of classes and modules programmatically, and techniques like method_missing and respond_to_missing which allow for dynamic method definitions. - **Debugging Tools**: He demonstrates using the 'tap' method for easier debugging, handling errors in threads, and the importance of employing garbage collection profilers. - **Practical Applications**: Finally, Gray shares whimsical examples such as creating infinite loops and using Ruby's commands for process handling. ### Conclusions: Gray concludes with the importance of understanding these Ruby features not just for technical excellence but as a way to impress peers in programming communities. He emphasizes that knowledge of these extras can significantly improve efficiency in Ruby programming and encourages viewers to explore these features further, sharing that slides will be made available for deeper study after the talk.
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