INPUT: a string containing decimal numbers. OUTPUT: an array containing all the decimal numbers within the given string. You can accomplish this task very quickly with the String#scan method and the right Regular Expression (regex). Given a string s, you can use: numbers = s.scan /[-+]?\d*\.?\d+/ numbers will be an array whose elements are the...

A couple of weeks ago I’ve discovered a very interesting and addictive website MathsChallenge.net . They have a section called Project Euler where participants can try to resolve more than 100 mathematical problems. The scoring system is really well done and the discussion forum for each problem is accessible only after having solved the...

A couple of weeks ago I’ve discovered a very interesting and addictive website MathsChallenge.net . They have a section called Project Euler where participants can try to resolve more than 100 mathematical problems. The scoring system is really well done and the discussion forum for each problem is accessible only after having solved the...

Currently online O’Reilly is selling the rough cuts version (basically the beta version) of the Ruby Cookbook. It’s a pleasure to see that many good books about Ruby are being published. This book authored by Leonard Richardson and Lucas Carlson is particularly special to me. In fact, I have contributed to the book with three...

Many hackers are quite religious about their programming language of choice, but I’m not. Whenever possible I try to be rational about things that matter to me. For this reason you won’t hear me saying things like: “Ruby rocks, Java sucks!”. Indeed Ruby rocks, but it does so for me, for the kind of development that I...

Sometimes you may want to exclude an action from being processed with the controller’s layout. In other words, you may need to use a default layout for all the methods in the controller, except for one of them. A quick way to do this is: class MyController < ApplicationController layout "mycontroller", :except => :myaction

Sometimes you may want to exclude an action from being processed with the controller’s layout. In other words, you may need to use a default layout for all the methods in the controller, except for one of them. A quick way to do this is: class MyController < ApplicationController layout "mycontroller", :except => :myaction

During the last couple of days I’ve been searching for a good Rails hosting solution at an affordable price. My principal requirements were: Ruby and ROR support (of course) Unlimited MySQL databases Possibility to handle multiple domains at no extra cost Shell access Unique static IP Lots of space and bandwidth available Good SLA...

During the last couple of days I’ve been searching for a good Rails hosting solution at an affordable price. My principal requirements were: Ruby and ROR support (of course) Unlimited MySQL databases Possibility to handle multiple domains at no extra cost Shell access Unique static IP Lots of space and bandwidth available Good SLA...

I finally got a good Rails hosting service for a fair price. As soon as I had access to the account I installed Typo. My blog is now powered by Typo, Rails, Ruby, MySQL, Apache and FastCGI. I have copied all the previous posts from blogspot. I apoligize for any inconvenience that this may create; if you are following my blog, please update your...

I finally got a good Rails hosting service for a fair price. As soon as I had access to the account I installed Typo. My blog is now powered by Typo, Rails, Ruby, MySQL, Apache and FastCGI. I have copied all the previous posts from blogspot. I apoligize for any inconvenience that this may create; if you are following my blog, please update your...

Lately I have been participating in a writing project that involves RMagick. I have been using RMagick for a while now and I highly reccomend it. I will give out some more details about the project in the future, but for the moment I just want to give props to Tim Hunter for his great job with interfacing Ruby with ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick.

Lately I have been participating in a writing project that involves RMagick. I have been using RMagick for a while now and I highly reccomend it. I will give out some more details about the project in the future, but for the moment I just want to give props to Tim Hunter for his great job with interfacing Ruby with ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick.

Merry Christmas to everybody, here is an awesome present for everyone: Ruby 1.8.4. It is also an anniversary for me: 1 year in the Ruby world!

Merry Christmas to everybody, here is an awesome present for everyone: Ruby 1.8.4. It is also an anniversary for me: 1 year in the Ruby world!