This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by Eigen Class. Original Post: Ruby, SEX and STDs: infectious practices Feed Title: Eigenclass Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/eigenclass Feed Description: Ruby stuff --- trying to stay away from triviality. Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by Eigen Class Latest Posts From Eigenclass

Let's get past the shame and stigma and talk about the ailments of your code. Yes, you could be infected right now without knowing it. Anecdotal evidence indicates that maybe as many as three in four Rubyists are.

It might be endogenous (bad laziness), or maybe you caught it via risky SEX*1. Fortunately, the condition is easy to diagnose, even if the treatment isn't effortless.

Virical nature

Say we're writing sqlitespace.rb*2, a small library which might be released for external consumption at some point in time, which implements persistent DRb TupleSpaces atop SQLite.

sqlitespace.rb requires sqlite.rb, which happens to be infected. At this point, sqlitespace.rb is at great risk, and very likely to be contaminated too.

Diagnosis