String substitutions in ruby and coding style I wrote a short ruby script to generate various screenshots, and event though I am not completely new to ruby I rarely use it. 

Full script (41 LOC): https://gist.github.com/1229115

The string substitutions irritate me. They don't look quite right - much too ugly for a beautiful and concise language like ruby. Am I overdoing it? What alternatives are there?

Here is the lines I am concerned about (for context, please take a look at the gist):

# assemble file name
fname = "#{directory}/#{prefix}-#{timestamp}-#{commit}-#{size[:width]}x#{size[:height]}.png"

# create command line stuff
call = "#{macruby_exe} #{snapper} \
        --width #{size[:width]} --height #{size[:height]} #{url} #{fname}"

# now call it
system call

# just to show the progress (and the file sizes)
puts "#{fname} (#{File.size?(fname) / 1024}kB)"




Just to illustrate the script, the output usually looks like:

screenies/screenshot-1316535022-0b5c7967887481deb17bcd9039cd3fe0ac4540d4-640x960.png (95kB)
screenies/screenshot-1316535022-0b5c7967887481deb17bcd9039cd3fe0ac4540d4-800x480.png (62kB)
screenies/screenshot-1316535022-0b5c7967887481deb17bcd9039cd3fe0ac4540d4-800x600.png (78kB)
   ^          ^          ^                          ^                       ^
   |          |          |                          |               ________|______
   |          |          |                          |              |               |
directory   prefix     timestamp                  commit    size[:width] x size[:height]
There are other ways you could write this but I'm not sure if you'd find any of them cleaner. One option is plain old sprintf. For example:

# assemble file name
fname = sprintf("%s/%s-%i-%s-%ix%i.png", directory, prefix, timestamp,
          commit, size[:width], size[:height])


You could shorten it a little by giving size its own to_s method:

class &lt;&lt; size; def to_s; "#{self[:width]}x#{self[:height]}" end end

fname = sprintf("%s/%s-%i-%s-%s.png", directory, prefix, timestamp,
          commit, size)


...and perhaps create other convenience methods along the same lines. But still, very small gains.

Another option would be to make your own super-small template engine, something like this:

def tiny_subst template, bndg
  param_exp   = /:(\w+)[^\w:]+/i
  tmpl_params = template.scan(param_exp).flatten

  proc {
    out_str = template.clone

    tmpl_params.reduce(out_str) do |str, p|
      str.gsub ":#{p}", eval(p, bndg).to_s unless p.empty?
    end
  }
end

tmpl   = ':directory/:prefix-:timestamp-:commit-:size.png'
subber = tiny_subst(tmpl, binding)

directory = 'screenies'
prefix    = 'screenshot'
timestamp = Time.now.to_i
commit    = '0b5c7967887481deb17bcd9039cd3fe0ac4540d4'
size      = '640x960'

subber.yield # =&gt; screenies/screenshot-1316535022-0b5c7967887481deb17bcd9039cd3fe0ac4540d4-640x960.png

commit  = 'foobarbazquux'
size    = '9000x9000'

subber.yield # =&gt; screenies/screenshot-1316535022-foobarbazquux-9000x9000.png


So, that's kinda nice, but is it really worth it? Not for me, but I guess if you really hate "#{this}" it might be.