Ruby expression values and a lesson on newlines

gistfile1.rb

# In Ruby, every expression (even ifs) has a value!

print 'What is your name? '
name = gets.chomp
name_response = if name == 'Suzanne'
    then 'Oh man, ' + name + ' you are awesome'
    else 'You, ' + name + ', are not nearly as cool as Suzanne.'
end
print name_response

# Now, you notice that when you run the script, you get this kind of effect:
#   Unicycle:~ andym$ ruby test.rb
#   What is your name? Suzanne
#   Oh man, Suzanne you are awesomeUnicycle:~ andym$ 

# Hm. Why is the last line like that? Well, why do you say gets.chomp instead of
# just gets? The input has a newline at the end, and you don't want that. But
# you *do* want it here.

# Try one, use the newline symbol:

print 'What is your name? '
name = gets.chomp
name_response = if name == 'Suzanne'
    then 'Oh man, ' + name + ' you are awesome.\n'
    else 'You, ' + name + ', are not nearly as cool as Suzanne.\n'
end
print name_response

# Result:
#   Unicycle:~ andym$ ruby test
#   What is your name? Andy
#   You, Andy, are not nearly as cool as Suzanne.\nUnicycle:~ andym$ 

# Whoa! Why'd that happen? Well, turns out 'str' and "str" aren't quite the same:
# The former doesn't interpret any special stuff (including escape sequences
# like \n), and the latter does.

# Try two:

print 'What is your name? '
name = gets.chomp
name_response = if name == 'Suzanne'
    then 'Oh man, ' + name + " you are awesome.\n"
    else 'You, ' + name + ", are not nearly as cool as Suzanne.\n"
end
print name_response

# This works as expected, but now we have that newline in both places.
# We could go back to the original code but use this instead of the last line:

print name_response + "\n"

# Or we can use print's friend, puts, which automatically adds a newline:

puts name_response