Cultural Awareness

Aliasing a Method in Ruby Takes Simple Programming

Aliasing a Method in Ruby Takes Simple Programming To alias a method or variable name in Ruby is to create a second name for the method or variable. Aliasing can be used either to provide more expressive options to the programmer using the class or to help override methods and change the behavior of the class or object. Ruby provides this functionality with the alias and alias_method keywords. Create a Second Name The alias keyword takes two arguments: the old method name and the new method name. The method names should be passed as labels, as opposed to strings. Labels are used to refer to methods and variables without directly referencing them. If youre a new Ruby programmer, the concept of labels may seem odd, but whenever you see a label like :methodname, just read it as the thing called methodname. The following example declares a new class and creates an alias for the on method called start. #!/usr/bin/env rubyclass Microwavedef onputs The microwave is onendalias :start :onendm Microwave.newm.start # same as m.on Change the Behavior of a Class There may be times when you want to change the behavior of a class after its been declared. You can alias and add new methods to an existing class by creating second class declaration that has the same name as the existing class declaration. You can also add aliases and methods to individual objects using a syntax similar to the inherited class syntax. The behavior of any class can be changed by creating an alias for any method and then creating a new method (with the original method name) that calls the method with the alias. In the following example, a microwave class is declared and an instance is created. The second class declaration uses the alias method to change the behavior of the on method in order to add a warning message. The third class declaration is used to change the behavior of the specific microwave instance to add an even more stern warning. When aliasing a method multiple times, be sure to use different method names to store the old method. #!/usr/bin/env rubyclass Microwavedef on  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  puts Microwave is on  Ã‚  end endm Microwave.newm.onclass Microwave  Ã‚  alias :old_on1 :ondef on  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  puts Warning: Do not insert metal objects!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  old_on1  Ã‚  end endm.on# Message for this specific microwaveclass   Ã‚  def onputs This microwave is weak, add extra timeold_on2endendm.on # Displays extra messagem2 Microwave.newm2.on # Does not display extra message

According to the article and answer the question Assignment - 1

According to the article and answer the question - Assignment Example Furthermore, the assertion that Sifaka have different colors is true. This is because on closer examination of these animals, it is possible to denote that they portray patches of black, gray, white and a gold colored fur. Furthermore, the author accurately describes the physical appearance of the Sifaka. In the description, the Sifaka have a slightly bugged out eyes, long limbs, and special characteristics that enables them to groom themselves (Kappeler, 21). This includes possessing a toilet claw, found in their second toe. It is important to denote that these are the characteristics of the family of Indriidae, and specifically, the genus of Lemur. It is further important to denote that Lemur is vegetarian in nature, and this makes the Sifaka to be vegetarians. On this basis, the writer is correct through the article which asserts that the diet of the Sifaka involves flowers, fruits, leaves, and the bark of a tree. Kappeler (31) also supports the fact that Sifaka likes sunbathing. This is a luxury to them, and it normally occurs when they are not looking for food. On this note, the information given by the author concerning this behavior is correct. Furthermore, the description of the author regarding the gestation period of the female Sifaka is correct. All Lemurs normally have a gestation period of between four to five months. The only shortcoming in this article is the inability of the writer to give information concerning the growth and development of the young

Evolution Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Evolution - Term Paper Example This is unlike many treatments of evolution where readers are often confused as a result of being conflated with different definitions of the term. The decision to divide â€Å"Darwinism† into six components makes the understanding of various concepts easy (Coyne, 2009). It is indeed true that, over time, allele rate of recurrence change in an inhabitants. It is also true that different organisms have occupied the earth at different times. The critical role of natural selection is in this is also an undisputed fact. Common ancestry is received positively by a majority within the scientific field (Coyne, 2009). My reflection on common descent is that while it is a defensible position, it is not as much supported as it is made out. Consequently, the points of concern in this chapter, in my view, include the extent to which gradualism is true and the sufficiency of natural selection. The second chapter of the book is ‘written in the rocks.’ It uses fossil evidence to justify common descent. It is indeed true that fossil records show a tendency where simpler organisms precede more complex ones. This is also exactly what one would anticipate as a result of a common origin (Coyne, 2009). A feature that would be absent in Darwin’s theory, but would be the noticeable pattern of morphological difference preceding diversity (Coyne, 2009). In my view, an interesting aspect of the fossil record is that, unlike Darwin’s theory, it ranks the higher taxonomic categories first and, consequently makes them appear first in the taxonomic ranking. There are three main evolutionary transition trends specified by the fossil record i.e. fish to amphibians evolution, reptiles to birds and whales to terrestrial mammals evolution (Coyne, 2009). Accordingly, there are three important insights that emerge from the fossil record. Firstly is that the fossil spells out the evolution process (Coyne, 2009). The records within rocks provide a great deal of

Groups in High School Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Groups in High School - Essay Example The gentlemen ask questions but only when necessary. They ask questions solely to clarify their concept. Whether or not the class pays attention to their question does not matter to them. All they want is clear concept from the teacher. They don’t tend to become prominent through speaking in the class or acting in the ways that are expected of the capable children. They are quite likely to be seen in spectacles. Most of them lose their eye-sight as a consequence of their obsession with studies. The gentlemen assume a higher status amongst the class fellows. They are idealized by the regulars and envied by the back benchers. The Regulars The regulars are seated in between the gentlemen and the back benchers. They make a bulk of the class and are the main source of income for the schools. They are the question raisers. They raise questions not because they are quite as interested in the lecture, but because they want to make their presence felt. Quite often, the regulars establi sh a gentleman as a benchmark and commit to themselves that they would beat that particular gentleman in the upcoming exam. Sometimes, the regular works hard enough to achieve this goal and thus, be promoted from the status of a regular to a gentleman. The regulars are generally quite vocal about their ambitions and challenges. If one regular establishes a gentleman as a benchmark, his friends would most likely know it. The regulars are all-rounders. They are not bad at studies but also not very good either. They have a wide array of topics to discuss with their friends on everyday basis. They are the first to know which movie is expected to release when and how much business would it do. They know what is going on in the national and international political scenario. In other words, their attention is diverted to so many areas at the same time that they are not able to do as good in studies as they are capable of doing. In a vast majority of cases, the regulars are more brilliant t han the gentleman, but they cannot help paying attention to activities other than studies. If they focus entirely upon their studies, they can do much better than most gentlemen. Many regulars are in this community because of their laziness. If they overcome their laziness, they are quite capable of becoming the gentlemen. The Back Benchers The back benchers are just as many as the gentlemen in the class. They occupy the rear-most seats in the class and are least enthusiastic about studies. They come to class just for the attendance. They bunk the classes yet make sure that they attend the classes just enough to have their case forwarded to the board for enrollment in the exam. The back benchers come into the classroom with earphones plugged in. They listen to the songs on MP3 while the lecture is on. Some of them sleep with their heads down on the table. They are artists. Most of them sleep in a way that you cannot catch them from a distance. They hold the book high in the hands to hide the face behind that. Somebody from a distance can take a back bencher for a gentleman. They are mostly found in the cafeteria with a cup of tea in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Their most favorite topic of discussion is girls. One back bencher consults the other for ways to make friends with girls. They discuss how they spent the weekend and the plans for the upcoming weekend. The back benchers

The Python Programming Language Computer Science Essay

The Python Programming Language Computer Science Essay Wikipedia definition of Python programming language is as followed; Python is a general-purpose high level programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to combine remarkable power with very clear syntax, and its standard library is large and comprehensive. Its use of indentation for block delimiters is unusual among popular programming languages. Python supports multiple programming paradigms (primarily object oriented, imperative, and functional) and features a fully dynamic type system and automatic memory management. Python is often used as a scripting language.and Python is a programming language that lets you work quickly, it also integrate your systems more successfully. Python is a powerful programming language that is used in a wide variety of application domains. Python is often compared to Perl, Ruby or Java. Some of its key features are: Fans of Python use the phrase batteries included to describe the standard library, which covers everything from asynchronous processing to zip files. The language itself is a flexible powerhouse that can handle practically any problem domain. Build your own web server in three lines of code. Build flexible data-driven code using Pythons powerful and dynamic introspection capabilities and advanced language features such as meta-classes, duck typing and decorators. Python lets you write the code you need quickly. And, thanks to a highly optimized byte compiler and support libraries, Python code runs more than fast enough for most applications. Python also comes with complete documentation, both integrated into the language and as separated web pages. Online tutorials target both the seasoned programmer and the newcomer. All are designed to make you productive quickly. The availability of first-rate book completes the learning package.and[2]and The programme I have chosen to compare against Python is Cobra. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting between the two programming software. On comparison, I have found Cobra has a more compile-time in regards to the error checking time. I believe Cobra saves time when it comes to reporting more than one error at one time. Cobra allows simple local variable assignment, which is very similar to Python; however with Cobra they give you a warning if they are never used. In Cobra these errors are caught at a compile-time and hardly take place during execution, like Python. Cobra believes getting them out of the way early, which will increase productivity time. Contracts have numerous benefits: They become part of the document interface to a method, showing what is expected to invoke the method and what can be relied on when the methods returns. They are technically enforced because they are executable. They catch run-time errors early when errors are still easy to diagnose. They are inherited by subclass methods so they do not need to be re-implemented (less coding). They may encourage developers to do more upfront thinking about how their classes will be used.and[3]and The problem is that Python defaults to a binary floating point type even though most numbers that people input are base 10. To help address this Python offers an additional Decimal type that computes the correct numbers, but it must be used explicitly end, some would say, awkwardly: So Cobra does the inverse, defaulting to an accurate decimal type and offering the floating point type as an option. A simple f suffix on a number such as 0.1f gives the 64-bit point value. The types are built in with the names decimal, float, float64 and float32. The type float is an alias for float64. Note that in both languages, float math operations are faster than decimal. However, most applications should prefer accuracy over speed that may not be noticeable or needed. For the other applications that really require more speed or compatibility with floating point based libraries, Cobra offers a command line option number:float64 which changes the types of literals like 1.0 and 0.5 to float64. Furthermore, Cobra provides a built-in number type which defaults to decimal but changes to float64 with this option. You can also specify -number: decimal although the letter is redundant.and[4]and Cobra complies down to machine code right out of the box. And Cobra favours static types for local variables by inferring them from their assignment. This promotes more compile-time error checking, especially when invoking library methods. But it also promotes speed. Python has solutions for improving speed for its developers: you can write some of your Python modules in C and wrap them in SWIG. You can use Pyrex. Or you can stay in Python and bring in C or C++ via Inline or Weave. But with Cobra the speed is built in from the beginning. You do not get kicked out to another language or get forced to assimilate another tool. Cobras performance is close or equal to that of C# and Java, and is therefore significantly faster than Python. Iron Python claims to be around 1.8X faster than Python, but this is still far slower than Cobra. Also, some users have found Iron Python can significantly slower than CPython and Jython.and[5]and Some applications including financial analysis, simulation, search, neural networks, games, and more require numerous CPU cycles which can cause Step2 to become a bottleneck during development. Cobra enables a tighter development cycle by offering high level coding and fast execution simultaneously. Because Cobra has no Global Interpreter Lock (GIL), it can run threads in parallel up to the number of cores available. Combined with its inherent speed, you can pack a lot of computation in one process on one computer.and[6]and In regards to the syntactic improvements, Cobra shares much in common with Python: Indentation denotes code blocks List literals Dictionary literals Print statement Assert statement For foo in bar Slicing And more But Cobra does not strive to be backwards compatible with Python. This opens the door to some improvements. Cobra allows embedding expressions in string literals-often called interpolated strings in other languages. This turns every string literal into a mini-templating language.and[7]and The Cobra compiler is implemented in Cobra. This means that the entire time the implementers are maintaining Cobra, they are using Cobra. This really tightens up the feedback loop on usability and bugs. This is in contrast to most other languages that are typically implemented in some other language. That practice greatly reduces the time that the language maintainers spend using their own language.and[8]and These disadvantages to using Cobra are: Documentation needs expansion. Cobra classes are not malleable at runtime like Python classes are. Like all budding languages, some people will pass over Cobra because it is new and, therefore, not yet popular. Fortunately, many people do not balk at newness as evidenced by the fact that many new languages of the past have gained popularity after their introduction, including Python and C#. The same will happen for Cobra, in time. Cobra is not yet available for JVM.and[9]and My overall thoughts of both Python and Cobra programming language, after researching for hours, I came to the conclusion that although Cobra is the better programming language it is not as established as Python, as of yet. Cobra offers a lot more for the user compared to Python. However saying that, I have only used the Python programming language software, so I can not give an answer as a user. Although from all the research I had come across, I still believe that Cobra would be a better programming language to use.

Born in Yorkshire in 1934, Alan Bennett. :: English Literature

Born in Yorkshire in 1934, Alan Bennett. Born in Yorkshire in 1934, Alan Bennett has been writing, performing and directing since his first theatrical encounters as a student at Oxford in the early 1960's. He first gained success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and later, in collaboration with Dudley Moore, Peter Cooke and Jonathan Miller, enjoyed considerable acclaim with the original Beyond the Fringe. (www.museum.tv. Accessed 26/01/03) Alan Bennett is the archetypal Northerner, his bespeckled, dour appearance make him an unlikely celebrity and he would not look out of place as a slightly muddled professor or, as Bennett himself observes, a vicar. He says on the subject of appearances 'people often end up doing what the mirror tells them they are suited for, while feeling themselves quite different inside. And in the process whole lives are thrown away' (Observer.co.uk. Accessed 21/01/03) Bennett writes about ordinary people, involved in mundane activities, but with his unique style he can liven up the dullest tale and add interest to life's lonely outcasts. Although the stories in Talking Heads are fiction, it is easy to see that some are influenced from events in Bennett's early life. His mother suffered from depression and he uses his experience of mental illness as a core for some of his characters. As he says, the people he writes about are 'part of a story to the meaning of which they are not entirely privy' (Observer.co.uk. Accessed 21/01/03) A reflection of Bennett's own sexuality can be seen in the character of Graham in A Chip in the Sugar, who is portrayed as an uncomfortable homosexual. Bennett described his sexuality during an interview in the New Yorker in 1993 thus 'I'd always been in love with guys but always unhappily' (Observer.co.uk. Accessed 21/01/03) Although not included in the collections of Talking Heads, the concept actually started with 'A Woman of No Importance', which was first televised in 1982. It began the trend that Bennett carried on in both Talking Heads 1 and 2. Both of these compilations contain works with similar themes running through them, loneliness, unhappiness, alienation from a changed society, and vague mental illness. The ironic wit Bennett uses to convey the almost tragic stories are central to how the characters accept the way their lives have turned out (www.museum.tv. Accessed 21/01/03) The theme of loneliness and alienation from a changed society runs like a thread through all six of the first Talking Heads stories. Each of the characters portray a struggle to 'fit in' with everyday life, some are alone and lonely, and some in a relationship of some kind, yet still lonely. The gentle humour used in each of the tales makes