Hiccdown Development Notes

  Dennis Hackethal submitted criticism #1984.

Hiccdown should have support for ids and class names in the tag symbol. Like Hiccup.

[:'div#my-id.my-class.another-class']
# => <div id="my-id" class="my-class another-class"></div>

It should also allow mixing:

[:'div#my-id.my-class.another-class', {id: 'override', class: 'additive'}]
# => <div id="override" class="my-class another-class additive"></div>

In other words, the id from the hash would override the id from the symbol, and the class from the hash would be added to the classes from the symbol.

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #330 and marked it as a criticism.

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate classes. How about they are called ‘displays’?

class ProductsDisplay
  def index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

Behind the scenes, the Hiccdown gem would need to make the instance variables available to the display class:

display = @display_module.new

view_context.instance_variables.each do |iv|
  display.instance_variable_set(
    iv,
    view_context.instance_variable_get(iv)
  )
end

Then:

class ProductsDisplay
  def index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method(@products)
  end
end

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate classes. How about they are called ‘displays’?

class ProductsDisplay
  def index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

Behind the scenes, the Hiccdown gem would need to make the instance variables available to the display class:

display = @display_module.new

view_context.instance_variables.each do |iv|
  display.instance_variable_set(
    iv,
    view_context.instance_variable_get(iv)
  )
end

Then:

class ProductsDisplay
  def index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method(@products)
  end
end
  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #303 and marked it as a criticism.

Hiccdown methods should live in Rails helpers as class methods. That way, the problem described in #302 is solved – methods can be referenced unambiguously:

ProductsHelper.index
StoresHelper.index

Hiccdown methods should live in Rails helpers as class methods. That way, the problem described in #302 is solved – methods can be referenced unambiguously:

ProductsHelper.index
StoresHelper.index
  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #302 and marked it as a criticism.

Hiccdown methods should live in Rails helpers as instance methods.

Hiccdown methods should live in Rails helpers as instance methods.

  Dennis Hackethal submitted criticism #859.

Could the errors around layouts be related to this?

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #331.

Not as of #330, they couldn’t.

#331·Dennis HackethalOP, over 1 year ago

It doesn’t really matter. This would be like calling a controller action from a helper method. Not something people do.

  Dennis Hackethal revised criticism #334 and unmarked it as a criticism.

Accidentally marked as a criticism

I think the thing I’m really fighting here is Rails being object-oriented. Which I can’t do anything about.

Not sure the Rails team realizes how much OOP reduces the extensibility of Rails.

I think the thing I’m really fighting here is Rails being object-oriented. Which I can’t do anything about.

Not sure the Rails team realizes how much OOP reduces the extensibility of Rails.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #333.

Having explored three different ideas, I believe #302 – having regular helper methods to render Hiccdown structures – is the best.

The idea is not without its flaws, but having to qualify a method name by, say, calling it idea_form instead of form is still better than manually having to pass the view context around all the time and not being able to trivially access instance variables.

So I’ll stick with #302 for now, which is the status quo already.

#333·Dennis HackethalOP, over 1 year ago

I think the thing I’m really fighting here is Rails being object-oriented. Which I can’t do anything about.

Not sure the Rails team realizes how much OOP reduces the extensibility of Rails.

  Dennis Hackethal submitted idea #333.

Having explored three different ideas, I believe #302 – having regular helper methods to render Hiccdown structures – is the best.

The idea is not without its flaws, but having to qualify a method name by, say, calling it idea_form instead of form is still better than manually having to pass the view context around all the time and not being able to trivially access instance variables.

So I’ll stick with #302 for now, which is the status quo already.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #303.

Hiccdown methods should live in Rails helpers as class methods. That way, the problem described in #302 is solved – methods can be referenced unambiguously:

ProductsHelper.index
StoresHelper.index
#303·Dennis HackethalOP, over 1 year ago

#327 applies here, too: no access to instance variables inside helper class methods.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #315.

I don’t think that’s something people would do a lot, but they still easily could: ProductsRenderer.index(self)

#315·Dennis HackethalOP, over 1 year ago

Not as of #330, they couldn’t.

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #325.

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate modules. How about they are called ‘displays’?

module ProductsDisplay
  def self.index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

A benefit of this approach is that, when people start a new Rails app, they may end up putting whatever they’d otherwise put in a helper in a display, since displays have the benefit of having unambiguously resolvable method names.

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate classes. How about they are called ‘displays’?

class ProductsDisplay
  def index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

Behind the scenes, the Hiccdown gem would need to make the instance variables available to the display class:

display = @display_module.new

view_context.instance_variables.each do |iv|
  display.instance_variable_set(
    iv,
    view_context.instance_variable_get(iv)
  )
end

Then:

class ProductsDisplay
  def index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method(@products)
  end
end
  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #328.

They are: vc.instance_variable_get(:@foo)

#328·Dennis HackethalOP, over 1 year ago

That’s way too verbose.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #327.

Instance variables are not available inside the methods.

#327·Dennis HackethalOP, over 1 year ago

They are: vc.instance_variable_get(:@foo)

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #325.

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate modules. How about they are called ‘displays’?

module ProductsDisplay
  def self.index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

A benefit of this approach is that, when people start a new Rails app, they may end up putting whatever they’d otherwise put in a helper in a display, since displays have the benefit of having unambiguously resolvable method names.

#325·Dennis HackethalOP revised over 1 year ago

Instance variables are not available inside the methods.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #325.

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate modules. How about they are called ‘displays’?

module ProductsDisplay
  def self.index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

A benefit of this approach is that, when people start a new Rails app, they may end up putting whatever they’d otherwise put in a helper in a display, since displays have the benefit of having unambiguously resolvable method names.

#325·Dennis HackethalOP revised over 1 year ago

I’m trying this now. Having to prepend every invocation of a helper method with vc. is getting really old really fast.

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #316.

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate modules. How about they are called ‘renderers’?

module ProductsRenderer
  def self.index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

A benefit of this approach is that, when people start a new Rails app, they may end up putting whatever they’d otherwise put in a helper in a renderer, since renderers have the benefit of having unambiguously resolvable method names.

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate modules. How about they are called ‘displays’?

module ProductsDisplay
  def self.index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

A benefit of this approach is that, when people start a new Rails app, they may end up putting whatever they’d otherwise put in a helper in a display, since displays have the benefit of having unambiguously resolvable method names.

  Dennis Hackethal revised criticism #322.

Tested, it works.

Tested, it works. self does indeed point to the view_context in the helper. Verified by printing object_ids.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #321.

Test this!

#321·Dennis HackethalOP, over 1 year ago

Tested, it works.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #315.

I don’t think that’s something people would do a lot, but they still easily could: ProductsRenderer.index(self)

#315·Dennis HackethalOP, over 1 year ago

Test this!

  Dennis Hackethal commented on criticism #319.

I don’t like the term ‘renderer’ yet. It’s too loaded with meaning, what with Rails already having a render method in controllers and another render method in views…

#319·Dennis HackethalOP, over 1 year ago

Maybe ‘Display’. ProductsDisplay

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #316.

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate modules. How about they are called ‘renderers’?

module ProductsRenderer
  def self.index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

A benefit of this approach is that, when people start a new Rails app, they may end up putting whatever they’d otherwise put in a helper in a renderer, since renderers have the benefit of having unambiguously resolvable method names.

#316·Dennis HackethalOP revised over 1 year ago

I don’t like the term ‘renderer’ yet. It’s too loaded with meaning, what with Rails already having a render method in controllers and another render method in views…

  Dennis Hackethal revised criticism #314.

Then how would you call this from a helper method?

Then how would you call index from a helper method?

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #313.

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate modules. How about they are called ‘renderers’?

module ProductsRenderer
  def self.index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

Hiccdown methods should live in their own, separate modules. How about they are called ‘renderers’?

module ProductsRenderer
  def self.index vc, # …
    vc.some_helper_method
  end
end

A benefit of this approach is that, when people start a new Rails app, they may end up putting whatever they’d otherwise put in a helper in a renderer, since renderers have the benefit of having unambiguously resolvable method names.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #314.

Then how would you call this from a helper method?

#314·Dennis HackethalOP, over 1 year ago

I don’t think that’s something people would do a lot, but they still easily could: ProductsRenderer.index(self)