"Really, you wrote this? This module that does ... NOTHING !!?"
Well, it does do something, as a new relatively new ruby user it helps me span the uncanny valley that is Ruby's approximation of English. I grew weary of errors because of statements like:
"Bob".starts_with? "B"
which resulted in:
NoMethodError: undefined method `starts_with?' for "Bob":String
from (irb):1
from ~/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/bin/irb:16:in `<main>'
During a chat about it with a friend, I jokingly dared myself to write a gem that really did nothing but "fix" these errors. It also was an opportunity to better understand Ruby meta-programming.
Of course, the name was too perfect to pass up.
W. Safire (1929–2009)
Thanks to Allister MacLeod for the very fun discussion leading to the idea.
Safire is released into the Public Domain for the fun and enjoyment of the Ruby community.