Sam Carr's Dog Speaks

I finally got a syntax highlighter installed. I figure that since I’m taking the free Ruby course at RubyLearning.org, I should make my code look nice (and be more usable) when I decide to put some here on my blog. Just to get things rolling, here is a bit of code from one of the exercises I’ve done during the first few weeks of the course.

class Dog
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name.capitalize
    @what = self.class.to_s.downcase
    puts "Hi! I'm #{@name}, your new #{@what}!"
  end

  def teach(new_trick)
    @tricks = Array.new unless @tricks
    @tricks += [new_trick]
    puts "#{@name} now knows how to #{new_trick}!"
  end

  def show_tricks
    list_of_tricks = [@tricks[0]]
    1.upto(@tricks.length-1) do |modify|
      list_of_tricks += [" and #{@tricks[modify]}"]
    end
    @name + ' knows how to ' + list_of_tricks.to_s
  end

  def bark
  end

  def eat
  end

  def chase_cat
  end

  def to_s
    @name + " (your #{@what})"
  end

  def capable_of?(capability)
    self.respond_to?(capability) ?
    puts("I can #{capability} or my name's not #{@name}!") :
    @tricks.include?(capability) ?
    puts("I have recently been taught to #{capability}!") :
    puts("This is something I have not heard of before... \
    #{capability} you said?")
  end

  def method_missing(method, *more_arguments)
    "#{@name} cocks it's head to the side as if to say \n\t\
    \"I don't understand what #{method} means.\""
  end
end

# a few examples of usage:
rex = Dog.new 'rex'
max = Dog.new 'Max'
rex.teach 'jump through hoops'
ObjectSpace.each_object(Dog) {|dog| dog.teach('chase cars') }
puts rex.show_tricks
rex.capable_of? 'bark'
rex.capable_of? 'chase cars'
rex.capable_of? 'fetch'
puts "#{max} is feeling a bit left out..."

Sadly, I had misinterpreted the challenge guidelines. The instructor wanted the learned tricks to be methods and not properties. Anyhoot, this post is just so I can see what the highlighter will do on my blog. :-P