DEV Community: Burdette Lamar

Fuzzy Fragment Matching

Burdette Lamar — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:28:02 +0000

I posted a question over at StackOverflow:

Got one flame (of course). But also got a wonderful answer from C3roe, about Javascript on GitHub web pages that does fragment matching.

Does anyone here know how this works, or what matching we can expect?

Quick Access to Ruby Documentation

Burdette Lamar — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 19:50:14 +0000

Dev of the Past

Needs to look up something in the Ruby docs (say, the official doc for class Array).
Goes to browser window.
Goes to search engine.
Searches for Ruby Array.
Gets annoying and useless suggestions, such as:
- Class: Array (Ruby 3.1.0) (Out-of-date; also not Ruby official doc site).
- Class: Array (Ruby 2.7.2) (Even more out of date; also not official site).
- Arrays - Ruby for Beginners (Not!).
- Ruby Array 101: Primary Methods & How To Use Them(Even more Not!)
Gives up.
Navigates to the official site https://docs.ruby-lang.org.
1. Clicks on a language (English or Japanese).
2. Clicks master (or whatever release desired).
3. Clicks Classes.
4. Scrolls to (or searches for ) Array.
5. Clicks on it.
6. Success!

Dev of the Future

(Wisely has gem webri installed.)

Goes to command window:
Types:

$ webri
webri> Array
Found one class/module name starting with 'Array'
  Array (Array.html)
Opening web page https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/3.4/Array.html.

Web page magically opens in browser.

More

webri displays documentation for (details at the links):

Check out the README.

To install:

$ gem install webri

Then invoke with:

$ webri
webri>

Note: tested on Ubuntu and Windows 11.

New Ruby Gem: webri

Burdette Lamar — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 00:07:57 +0000

I've published a new Ruby gem webri that is a command-line utility for displaying Ruby's online documentation (web pages).

It's sort of like RDoc's own RI, but:

ri displays text documentation in your command window.
webri displays a web page from Ruby's official documentation by opening it in your default web browser.

Example (opens page Array in your web browser):

$ webri
webri> Array
Found one class/module name starting with 'Array'
  Array (Array.html)
Opening web page https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/3.4/Array.html.
webri>

webri displays documentation for (details at the links):

Check out the README.

To install:

$ gem install webri

Then invoke with:

$ webri
webri>

Note: tested on Ubuntu and Windows 11.

Thanks!

Burdette Lamar — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 21:49:58 +0000

To borrow a thought from Post Benedict XVI, I don't know how much more time and strength I'll have, so should say now what I have to say.

I worked for forty years in the software industry: as a documentor, a developer, and a test-automation specialist. Most of that work mattered at the time; some was leading-edge (sometimes, bleeding-edge). Now all that work is dead and gone -- and that's okay; that's the way of all software.

When I "got retired," I first tried working on some projects of my own, blogging, and posting to some tech sites. That work was low-impact to begin with, and rapidly became much lower-impact. I was amazed at how quickly the search engines forgot about me (think, "red shift").

Then I realized that I should be working to improve the documentation for the Ruby core and Standard Library -- which will not be forgotten anytime soon. So for five years now, I've been doing that.

Profuse thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way. I'm not going to try to name the many careful reviewers who have kept me on the straight and narrow in this work; if I tried to do so, I would surely mistakenly leave out someone I should have included.

Those who study longevity say that a sense of purpose is crucial to well-being. My purpose in this work has made my life interesting and pleasant, and I'm sure has also made it longer. So once again, Thanks!

Nokogiri Cookbook?

Burdette Lamar — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 23:00:27 +0000

Rubyists! We're planning to write up some "how-to" docs for Nokogiri (the Ruby gem for XML/HTML). What are things you frequently do with XML or HTML, or wish there was a short recipe for?

Tell us here: https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/discussions/3419

(Or, if you can't post a reply there, tell us here.)

My First RubyConf

Burdette Lamar — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 10:32:46 +0000

TL;DR: Went to RubyConf in Chicago; had a wonderful time; met "online" friends; met new people; found new work.

The Ruby community is very welcoming and friendly. I'd forgotten a main Ruby meme: "Matz is nice, so we are nice." (Matz is the Ruby founder and benevolent dictator).

I could walk up to any group, seated or standing, and ask "May I join you?" and be welcomed. The custom is to say your name and hold up your credential (to show written name); others do the same.

The response I'd often get is "You're a core committer!" (Core committers maintain and extend Ruby; we are about 75 worldwide, and were 15 of the 600 conference attendees.)

People wanted to know what I do (I revise and extend Ruby documentation), and generally thanked me for my work (everyone wants to write code, not many want to write documentation).

I had some come to me and say "I wanted to meet you," including some of the major players. This happened more often as the conference went on, which may mean that word was spreading among the cognoscenti that I was there. Also, daily red shirt and black tie (as also seen on this site) made me easy to find.

I met some of the people who have spent countless hours reviewing what I write (and gently pointing out my worst blunders). Also made a point to meet Matz (would not be allowed to return home otherwise), and several committers whose work I may be able to help with.

The attendees were from everywhere: North America, Japan, Brazil, Poland, Bosnia, Kenya, and more.

I myself took only one picture (many others will be available later):

Travel was easy, room was comfortable. Only gained 4 pounds (major victory!).

Will go next year!

Rubyist Survey: Ruby ri documentation viewer

Burdette Lamar — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 12:51:43 +0000

Rubyists, how do you use ri? Very often? Sometimes? Occasionally? Rarely? Not at all? Never heard of it?

Hint: Type ‘ri --help’

RDoc Markup Reference

Burdette Lamar — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 14:31:22 +0000

Last year I created a new markup reference for Ruby's RDoc module. If you're an RDoc user, check it out:

https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/master/RDoc/MarkupReference.html

What's Here in Ruby Class Hash

Burdette Lamar — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 19:01:16 +0000

Check out the What's Here section in the documentation for Ruby class Hash. (Full disclosure: I wrote it.)

It's not a tutorial; it's an overview of methods by category (creating, comparing, querying, etc.).

Ruby Method of the Day: String#=~

Burdette Lamar — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:32:25 +0000

Method String#=~ searches string self, looking for the given argument (Regexp or other object).

When the argument is a regexp, the method returns the integer index of the first substring that matches the regexp, or nil if no match.

But that's only the beginning. The method also sets a number of global variables that give more details:

$~: Returns a MatchData object, or nil.
$&: Returns the matched part of the string, or nil.
$`: Returns the part of the string to the left of the match, or nil.
$': Returns the part of the string to the right of the match, or nil.
$+: Returns the last group matched, or nil.
$1, $2, etc.: Returns the first, second, etc., matched group, or nil. Note that $0 is quite different; it returns the name of the currently executing program.

See examples at Regexp Global Variables.

[Yes, I've copied shamelessly from the official documentation for regexp global variables. But I don't feel bad; I wrote that documentation (as well as the documentation for String#=~).]

More methods at #rubymethodoftheday.

Ruby Method of the Day: #count

Burdette Lamar — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 12:17:07 +0000

Method count returns an integer count of the number of items in a collection that match a given criterion.

The method is available as:

Array#count.
Range#count.
String#count (with a special implementation that is not discussed here).
Enumerable#count, which is included or extended in a number of classes in the Ruby core and standard library.

There are three ways to call the method:

With no argument and no block, returns the count of items in the collection:

[0, 1, 2].count # => 3
[].count # => 0

With argument object, returns the count of items == object in the collection:

[0, 1, 2, 0.0].count(0) # => 2
[0, 1, 2].count(3) # => 0

With a block, calls the block with each item in the collection; returns the count of elements for which the block returns a truthy value:

[0, 1, 2, 3].count {|element| element > 1} # => 2

More methods at #rubymethodoftheday.

Ruby Method of the Day: Array.new with Block

Burdette Lamar — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 20:47:55 +0000

One of the call sequences for method Array.new takes a block, allowing you to populate the new array with anything you want:

Array.new(size) {|index| ... }

This returns an array of the given size; the block is called with each successive integer index; the block's return value becomes the element for that index:

a = Array.new(3) {|index| "Element #{index}" }
a # => ["Element 0", "Element 1", "Element 2"]

More methods at #rubymethodoftheday.