Explanations why one style is preferred to another about ruby-style-guide

[jcf]

I've added a suggestion on how to tackle array literals with spaces in our style guide if you're interested.

# bad
LANGUAGES = %w(Ruby Python Object\ Lisp)

# good
LANGUAGES = ['Ruby', 'Python', 'Object Lisp']

As soon as you're dealing with strings that contain word boundaries it's time to ditch the literal syntax in my opinion.

[gerggggggg]

Thanks jcf, I would agree on this recommendation.

I'd still like to see an explanation of why the %w syntax is preferred to the literal array.

[jcf]

Personally I think it's easier to write, read and reorder/refactor as quotes and commas can be ignore when using %w().

DAYS = %w(
  Monday
  Tuesday
  Wednesday
  Thursday
  Friday
  Saturday
  Sunday
)

…versus…

DAYS = [
  'Monday',
  'Tuesday',
  'Wednesday',
  'Thursday',
  'Friday',
  'Saturday',
  'Sunday'
]

Apologies for posting this twice. Github apparently doesn't support syntax highlighting in email replies.

[bbatsov]

Explaining everything would turn this guide into a book. :-)