Ask HN: Help me refactor this code please (Ruby)

grover_hartmann · on Aug 20, 2015

So I would like to rename VendingMachine to Controller and have a VendingMachine model where I move #vend and #refund to it.

I'm also not very happy with #menu being this large in LoC. What would you guys recommend?

BlackjackCF · on Aug 21, 2015

Having a vending machine model where it interacts with the balance and price is a good call.

I would also think about renaming either your refund method or your refund variable. It gets a little confusing.

You should also think about the fact that your refund method's case statement doesn't have a default. That means if someone doesn't put in either "y" or "n", you're screwed. Same situation with menu. You should always code for the unhappy path, meaning that you should think through for when someone decides to screw with your program.

In your menu case statement, I don't understand why you can't just do this:

case input when 1 name = "Coffee" price = @items[:coffee] ... #end of case statement

vend(name, price).

That'll DRY up your code at least a little bit.

grover_hartmann · on Aug 21, 2015

Something like this perhaps?

https://gist.github.com/fbdf89c0117c3e1452cf

grover_hartmann · on Aug 21, 2015

Or maybe this?

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/41c829f53777c4cdd41c

technion · on Aug 21, 2015

Think about types. You call .to_i on the balance, so it can only initially be an integer. But you have items costing 1.50.