TheInternet.is_a?(Hash) == true
2006-08-14
While convalescing from a recent surgery, I had a flash of insight. One can view the Internet and a file system as one big, really big, Hash.
What is a Hash if not a way to access a value referenced by a key ?
What is a filename ? A key.
What is a URL ? A key.
the_internet.rb
1 require ‘uri’
2 require ‘open-uri’
3 require ‘singleton’
4
5 # Access the Internet through a Hash-like interface
6 # Code originally written by
7 # François Beausoleil (francois@teksol.info)
8 # This code is released in the public domain.
9 class TheInternet
10 include Singleton
11
12 def [](url)
13 uri = url.respond_to?(:read) ? url : URI.parse(url)
14 uri.read
15 end
16
17 def []=(url, value)
18 # POST, PUT or whatever to URL
19 end
20 end
filesystem.rb
1 require ‘singleton’
2
3 # Access the filesystem through a Hash-like interface
4 # Code originally written by
5 # François Beausoleil (francois@teksol.info)
6 # This code is released in the public domain.
7 class Filesystem
8 include Singleton
9
10 def [](path)
11 File.read(path)
12 end
13
14 def []=(path, value)
15 File.open(path, ‘wb’) do |f|
16 f.write(value)
17 # Could do fancy stuff here:
18 # YAMLize value, marshall it, etc.
19 end
20 end
21 end
The above allows us to do very interesting things:
1 # Copy from the Internet to a local file:
2 Filesystem.instance[‘teksol.info/index.html’] =
3 TheInternet.instance[‘http://blog.teksol.info/’]
4
5 # Given a suitable implementation of TheInternet#[]=,
6 # we could do:
7 search_results =
8 (TheInternet.instance[‘http://www.google.com/search’] =
9 {:hl => ‘en’, :q => ‘rails’})
Is this rambling interesting ? Certainly. Is it useful ? You tell me !
DISCLAIMER: The Filesystem object above is full of security holes. It should be implemented in a chrooted, environment, check permissions, etc.
