Custom Boolean

Tired of the way Ruby sees truth? Want to experiment with the way other languages see it? No? Oh well, you may still want to have a play...

CustomBoolean is a little hack to bring user-defined truthiness to if/else_if/else-like expressions.

• Implements various preset truth tests: Ruby, Python, Perl, C, Strict Boolean.
• Provides ability to completely customize truthiness.
• Provides common Boolean Operators (and, or, not) compatible with CustomBoolean
• Read the documentation
• See the source code
• Install the gem gem install custom_boolean

Normal conditionals:

if_(0) { 
    puts 'true' 
}.
else { 
    puts 'false' 
}

#=> 'true'

A Pythonic truthiness:

# redefine truthiness with the `truth_test` method
CustomBoolean.truth_test = CustomBoolean::PYTHON_TRUTH

if_(0) { 
    puts 'true' 
}.
else { 
    puts 'false' 
}

#=> false

A full example:

x = 5
if_(x == 4) {
    puts 'x is 4' 
}.
else_if(x == 5) {
    puts 'x is 5'
}.
else {
    puts 'x is neither 4 nor 5'
}

#=> "x is 5"

Nested ifs work fine:

x = :delighted
y = :aroused

if_(x == :sad) {
  puts 'evaluates to true' 
}.
else_if(x == :delighted) {
  if_(y == :happy) {
    puts 'delighted and happy'
  }.
  else_if(y == :aroused) {
    puts 'delighted and aroused'
  }.
  else { puts 'just delighted' }
}.
else {
  puts 'not delighted'
}
#=> "delighted and aroused"

If expressions

# prefixing `if_` with `+` invokes if-expression behaviour
+if_(false) {
  :hello
}.
else {
  :goodbye
}
#=> :goodbye

Full list of preset CustomBoolean truth tests

CustomBoolean::RUBY_TRUTH  # the default
CustomBoolean::PYTHON_TRUTH 
CustomBoolean::PERL_TRUTH 
CustomBoolean::C_TRUTH
CustomBoolean::STRICT_TRUTH # (`true` or `false` only)

Use as follows:

CustomBoolean.truth_test = CustomBoolean::C_TRUTH

+if_(0) {
  true
}.
else {
  false
}
#=> false

Customizable truthiness

CustomBoolean.truth_test can be set to an arbitrary Proc:

# only :horse is true
CustomBoolean.truth_test = proc { |b| b == :horse }

if_(true) {
  puts 'evaluates to true' 
}.
else {
  puts 'reached else'
}
# => 'reached else

if_(:horse) {
  puts 'evaluates to true' 
}.
else {
  puts 'reached else'
}
#=> 'evaluates to true'

Boolean operators

The ordinary && and || and ! operators do not implement CustomBoolean truthiness. Instead use Object#and, Object#or, and Object#negate (or Object#& and Object#| and true.& and false.|, etc)

# use perl truthiness where "0" is false
CustomBoolean.truth_test = CustomBoolean::PERL_TRUTH

+if_(true & "0") {
  true
}.
else {
  false
}
#=> false

# Or use Object#and
+if_(true.and "0") {...}

# Use negate (rather than not)
+if_(negate("0")) { true } ##=> true   

Testing truthiness of expressions

You can test the truthiness of an expression without using the full machinery of if_/else_if/else. Just use the CustomBoolean.truthy?() function:

CustomBoolean.truth_test = CustomBoolean::PERL_TRUTH
CustomBoolean.truthy?("0") #=> false

Feedback

Problems or bugs, file an issue!

Have fun!