You [Gerald Bauer¹] have been permanently banned [for life] from participating in r/ruby (because of your writing off / outside of r/ruby). I do not see your participation adding anything to this [ruby] community.

-- Richard Schneeman (r/ruby mod and fanatic illiberal ultra leftie on a cancel culture mission)

¹: I know. Who cares? Who is this Gerald Bauer anyway. A random nobody for sure. It just happens that I am the admin among other things of Planet Ruby.

Case Studies of Code of Conduct "Cancel Culture" Out-Of-Control Power Abuse - Ruby - A Call for Tolerance On Ruby-Talk Results In Ban On Reddit Ruby

Update (August, 2022) - A Call for More Tolerance And Call For No-Ban Policy Results In Ban On Ruby-Talk (With No Reason Given) 

>  I just banned gerald.bauer@gmail.com.
>
>  -- SHIBATA Hiroshi
>
>> THANK YOU
>> 
>>  -- Ryan Davis
>>
>>
>> My full support to moderators.
>>
>> -- Xavier Noria
>> 
>> My full support to moderators.
>>
>>  -- Carlo E. Prelz
>>
>>  That's fun.
>>
>>  -- Alice

Read the full story »

« Ruby Gem of the Week Series

Week 6 - state_machine(s) gem - model processes and work flows with finite state machines (FSM) and automata theory

What’s a state machine? What’s a finite state machine (FSM)?

A state machine or finite state machine (FSM) lets you model a traffic light, a shopping cart checkout procedure, a conference proposal process, a credit card transaction and many more “real world” tasks using 1) states, 2) events, and 3) transitions. Or to quote the Wikipedia:

A finite-state machine (FSM) or finite-state automaton (plural: automata), or simply a state machine, is a mathematical model of computation used to design both computer programs and sequential logic circuits. It is conceived as an abstract machine that can be in one of a finite number of states. The machine is in only one state at a time; the state it is in at any given time is called the current state. It can change from one state to another when initiated by a triggering event or condition; this is called a transition. A particular FSM is defined by a list of its states, and the triggering condition for each transition.

Example: The State of the Football Match

Let’s start defining a state machine for modelling football matches in Ruby.

class Match

  state_machine :initial => :scheduled do
    event :start do
      transition :scheduled => :playing
    end
    event :finish do
      transition :playing => :finished
    end
  end

end

That you can use like:

m = Match.new
m.state        # => :scheduled
m.scheduled?   # => true
m.playing?     # => false
m.finished?    # => false
m.can_finish?  # => false
m.can_start?   # => true

m.start        # transition from :scheduled to :playing by calling event method e.g. start
m.state        # => :playing
m.playing?     # => true
m.can_start?   # => false
m.can_finish?  # => true

m.finish
m.state        # => Trivia Quiz: a) :scheduled, b) :playing, c) :finished

The state is a variable that holds - surprise, surprise - the state of the model. All possible states are strings (symbols) e.g. :scheduled, :playing, :finished.

Events are methods (e.g. Match#start, Match#finish) that change the state of the model (that is, transition from one state to another e.g. from :playing to :finished).

Why use a state machine? Because it lets you do more with less code thanks to automata theory packed-up into ready-to-use gems for use in your models in practice.

What’s the state_machine(s) gem?

Let’s thank Aaron Pfeifer and friends - who started the state_machine gem and Abdelkader Boudih and friends - who continue with the state_machines gem that lets you create state machines for attributes on any class in Ruby.

Let’s continue the football match example - yes, it’s the state_machine gem in action - and let’s add more states. Football matches in the real-world can get canceled, postponed, awarded points if canceled or can get rescheduled or matches can get scheduled for a matchday but not yet timed for a fixed day and time and so on and on. A picture says more than a thousand words:

Let’s define the state machine in Ruby using the state_machine mini language:

class Match

  state_machine :initial => :scheduled do
    event :time do
      transition [:scheduled,:postponed] => :timed
    end
    event :postpone do
      transition :timed => :postponed
    end
    event :start do
      transition :timed => :playing
    end
    event :cancel do
      transition [:timed,:postponed,:playing] => :canceled
    end
    event :reschedule do
      transition :canceled => :scheduled
    end
    event :finish do
      transition :playing => :finished
    end
    event :award do
      transition :canceled => :awarded
    end
  end

end

And let’s try it out:

m = Match.new
m.state        # => :scheduled
m.scheduled?   # => true
m.timed?       # => false
m.can_start?   # => false
m.time
m.timed?       # => true
m.can_start?   # => true
m.start
m.playing?     # => true
m.finished?    # => false
m.can_cancel?  # => true
...

What else can state_machine do for you? Let’s store the state in a database table with ActiveRecord. First let’s create a table with the required column - surprise, surprise - called state:

create_table :matches do |t|
  t.string :state
end

And derive the Match class from ActiveRecord::Base:

class Match < ActiveRecord::Base
  ## same as above
end

That’s it. Let’s test drive the script with an in-memory SQLite database:

require 'active_record'
require 'state_machine'

ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(
  adapter:  'sqlite3',
  database: ':memory:'
)

ActiveRecord::Schema.define do
  create_table :matches do |t|
    t.string :state
  end
end


class Match < ActiveRecord::Base
  ## same as above
end

m = Match.create!   # creates the record in the database table using SQL
                    #  e.g INSERT INTO matches (state) VALUES ("scheduled")
m.state             # => :scheduled
m.time              # gets auto-saved (and auto-commited)
                    #  e.g. UPDATE matches SET state = "timed" WHERE matches.id = 1
m.timed?            # => true
m.finished?         # => false
m.start             # again gets auto-saved (and auto-commited)
                    #  e.g. UPDATE matches SET state = "playing" WHERE matches.id = 1
m.state             # => Trivia Quiz: a) :scheduled, b) :playing, c) :finished
...

That’s just the beginning. More state_machine highlights include:

Bonus - Order Processing Example by Markus Prinz

Thanks to Markus Prinz - who talked about “Ghost in the State Machine” at the last Vienna.rb meetup and lets us share the order state machine example:

require 'state_machine'

class Order
  state_machine :state, :initial => :new do
    around_transition do |order, transition, block|
      puts "Starting transition from #{transition.from}"
      block.call
      puts "Finished transition to #{transition.to}"
    end

    event :submit do
      transition :new => :payment_waiting
    end

    event :payment_received do
      transition :payment_waiting => :waiting_for_processing
    end

    event :payment_failed do
      transition :payment_waiting => :payment_failed
    end

    event :retry_payment do
      transition :payment_failed => :payment_waiting
    end

    event :process do
      transition :waiting_for_processing => :waiting_for_shipping
    end

    event :ship do
      transition :waiting_for_shipping => :shipped
    end
    after_transition :on => :ship, :do => :notify_customer

    # Multiple transitions, first matching is taken
    event :cancel do
      transition :waiting_for_processing => :canceled
      transition :waiting_for_shipping => :canceled
      transition :shipped => :waiting_for_return
    end

    event :return_shipment_received do
      transition :waiting_for_return => :canceled
    end
  end

  def notify_customer
    puts "Your package has been shipped! :shipit:"
  end
end

if __FILE__ == $0
  order_fsm = Order.new
  order_fsm.submit!
  order_fsm.payment_received!
  order_fsm.process!
  order_fsm.ship!

  puts "\n\n"

  print "Received payment twice (soft): "
  order_fsm.payment_received
  puts order_fsm.state
  puts "Received payment twice:"
  order_fsm.payment_received!
end

(Source: Ghost in the State Machine, Talk Slides)

Find Out More

state_machines (ActiveRecord 4.1+)

state_machine (ActiveRecord up-to 4.0.x)

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