Slides

The Closure Zoo

  • blocks
  • procs
  • lambdas
  • methods
  • bears

They vary based on how they deal with

  • arity
    • do they care how many parameters they're passed?
  • return semantics
    • does return return from the closure or from the function?
  • scope
    • does it inherit scope or define a new one?

Rule #1: ignore lambdas

  • move along; nothing to see here
  • if you need to declare a closure, use proc
  • procs are easier to use
    • due to their answers to the arity and return questions

Rule #2: blocks are procs

  • or at least they act like they are
  • there are some minor performance differences in some Ruby VMs

Rule #3: def breaks scope; do doesn't

x = 7

proc { puts x }.call #=> 7

def foo
  puts x
end
foo #=> NameError: undefined local variable or method `x'

Rule #4: don't worry about it

  • just muddle along and things will probably work ok

Block Parameters