How do I access the Activerecord setter I overrode? - ruby-on-rails

I want to use a custom setter to do some formatting of my fields. In irb if I test the setter like:
o.field_name = "4"
I see that my custom setter is being referred to. But with this it is not:
o[:field_name] = "4"
I understand that in the first case this is a function call and in the second case we are just setting the attribute directly. But I don't completely see how the attribute can be set without going through our custom setter, I thought that was the point.
But my main question is that if var holds my field_name, I don't see how to dynamically refer to a.var and have it be interpreted as a.field_name. All I see to do is a[var] and this bypasses my setter.

Try a.send(var) where var = 'field_name'
That's the equivalent of a.field_name

o[:field_name] is like read_attribute(:field_name), thus is just reads the value as you said. It can be quite important in virtual attributes in order to bypass the stack too deep error. If you do a[:var], you just get its value. A virtual attribute refers to an attribute, if you are setting its value to another variable, you just get its value, not the object.

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Binding boolean (Property) to List operations in JavaFX

I found JavaFX to be suprisingly expressive after getting over the fact that I had to redeclare every field as property so I am a little stumped and would like to know if there is a better, more idomatic way of binding a boolean to some more complex operation like adding and removing style classes.
In this example I have a project that maybe valid or not and I want the font color of the tab to indicate which it is. I am doing this by adding and removing the error style class:
val errorSwitch = { valid : Boolean ->
logger.debug {"errorSwitcher: $valid"}
if( valid) tab.styleClass.remove("error")
else tab.styleClass.add("error")
Unit
}
product.isValid.onChange (errorSwitch)
errorSwitch(product.isValid.value)
What I don't like here is that I have to call the function once myself to start with because "onChange" obviously does not trigger unless the isValid actually changes. It's a small thing but I am wondering if there isn't a better way with bindings because thats what I want: the presence of the error class should be bound to "isValid"
In TornadoFX the best way to achieve this is to use the toggleClass function, which will automatically add or remove a given class based on a boolean observable value. Therefore you can simply say:
tab.toggleClass(Styles.error, product.isValid)
This example requires you to use the Type Safe CSS feature of TornadoFX. Read more about Type Safe CSS in the guide :)

Updating dynamically computed property in polymer.dart

I have a scenario where I have a property that is data-bound using polymer.dart, but it does not have its own backing field. Instead it is dynamically evaluated at run-time by logic which is dependent on a lot of other internal conditions. So when other logic dictates I want to tell the data-binding to update the value. In C#/XAML the NotifyPropertyChange does not require you to pass in old and new value so it is easy to solve this. But in polymer.dart we do need to pass old and new value always, which is not possible for a dynamically evaluated property (or at least not preferable for performance reasons). How would we handle this in polymer.dart?
Here is a pseudo example. The question is what I should put in the ??? fields?
class MyBoundClass extends Observable {
void run() {
... logic, sets values in several internal non-observable objects...
notifyPropertyChange(#status, ???, ???);
}
String get status {
result = ... logic, evaluates values from several internal non-observable objects...
return result;
}
}
I guess one solution would be to simply introduce another backing field in MyBoundClass. But what I really want is just to update the binding and I don't see why it required to pass the old value. It seems to me that if you just want to update the binding, the old value is not relevant?
Passing null as old value should do.

Assign value to Swift property

When should I assign value to properties in swift?
What is the difference between
class Thing {
var something:String = "Cool Thing"
}
and this
class Thing {
var something:String
init(){
something = "Cool Thing"
}
}
Actually its quite obvious when value is assigned on init() but when is value assigned when using 1st piece of code and which is the right way to do?
They're the same, but Apple suggests using the default property value pattern "if a property always takes the same initial value" for stylistic reasons. See the note in Default Property Values section of The Swift Programming Language: Initialization, which says:
Default Property Values
You can set the initial value of a stored property from within an initializer, as shown above. Alternatively, specify a default property value as part of the property’s declaration. You specify a default property value by assigning an initial value to the property when it is defined.
NOTE: If a property always takes the same initial value, provide a default value rather than setting a value within an initializer. The end result is the same, but the default value ties the property’s initialization more closely to its declaration. It makes for shorter, clearer initializers and enables you to infer the type of the property from its default value. The default value also makes it easier for you to take advantage of default initializers and initializer inheritance, as described later in this chapter.
You can use any of the 2. The difference is that if you have multiple initializer you might need to replicate the property initialization. Besides that it's just a matter of preference.
They should both be doing the same thing. The main difference for not initializing first would be if you wanted to assign the var as an optional and test for nil. Otherwise assigning the value would be the same.
var something:String?

How to properly set an instance variable with instance_variable_set?

I was looking through the docs for instance_variable_set and saw that the sample code given does this:
obj.instance_variable_set(:#instnc_var, "value for the instance variable")
which then allows you to access the variable as #instnc_var in any of the class's instance methods.
I'm wondering why there needs to be a colon : before the #instnc_var. What does the colon do?
My first instinct is to tell you not to use instance_variable_set unless you really know what you are using it for. It's essentially a tool for metaprogramming or a hack to bypass visibility of the instance variable.
That is, if there is no setter for that variable, you can use instance_variable_set to set it anyway. It's far better if you control the code to just create a setter.
Try looking at accessors for the vast majority of your instance variable setting needs. They are an idiomatic way to have getters and setters for your instance variables "for free" without you having to write those functions.
If you really do need instance_variable_set, it allows the first argument to be a symbol which is the name of the instance variable to set. A colon is part of the Ruby language that is like a "symbol literal": when you type :foo, you've created a symbol with value foo, just like when you type "bar" directly into your code, you create a string literal with value "bar".

T4MVC: What are MVC.Controller.ActionParams are for?

I've found properties corresponding to each action named like this: MVC.<Controller>.<Action>Params, they contain parameter names for each action. What are they for and how they can be used?
There were some edge scenarios where it was interesting to pass the parameter name as a constant. I can't instantly recall what that person was doing, but I could see this being useful is calls to AddRouteValue. In the end, it's all about never to have to use a literal string that refers to a C# object, whether it's a class, method, or param.

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