Question

In Ruby, I would like to select a default object for a block.

An example in Actionscript is:

with (board) { 
    length = 66; 
    width = 19; 
    fin_system = 'lockbox'; 
}

Which is equivalent to:

board.length = 66;
board.width = 19;
board.fin_system = 'lockbox';

Here is the documentation for this statement in Actionscript:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/statements.html#with

How can I accomplish this in Ruby?

Answer 1

Hash.new.tap do |h|
  h[:name] = "Mike"
  h[:language] = "Ruby"
end
#=> {:name=>"Mike", :language=>"Ruby"} 

You could try Object#tap with Ruby 1.9.

So in your case:

board.tap do |b|
  b.length = 66;
  b.width = 19;
  b.fin_system = "lockbox"
end