Question

def show
  render :text => params.inspect
end

What is render :text =>?

What is render, :text, and the =>?
Are they standard ruby?

Answer 1

The syntax you see used in that code snippet is not limited to render(), but it is common with many other Ruby on Rail methods.

The method is accepting a hash map, using a simplified syntax.
The code is equivalent to

def show
  render({:text => params.inspect})
end

Other code snippets that include the same syntax are:

def sign
  Entry.create(params[:entry])
  redirect_to :action => "index"
end

url_for :controller => 'posts', :action => 'recent'
url_for :controller => 'posts', :action => 'index'
url_for :controller => 'posts', :action => 'index', :port=>'8033'
url_for :controller => 'posts', :action => 'show', :id => 10
url_for :controller => 'posts', :user => 'd', :password => '123'

def show
  @article = Article.find(params[:id])
  fresh_when :etag => @article, :last_modified => @article.created_at.utc, :public => true
end