Remember the Reality library? That thing which wants to make the entire world inspectable and computable through Ruby, Wikipedia, Wikidata and other data sources? Like this:

E('Eiffel Tower').coord.weather # => #<Reality::Weather(13°C, Clear)>

We have a new release today! It’s not some breakthrough, more “way to maturity” release, but contains some things you’d possibly wants to check out.

Docs

Reality is pretty well documented now. We have both YARD docs for core classes and not-so-small Wiki on GitHub, where you’ll find tutorials, some philosophy and tech details, as well as detailed roadmap for future.

reality command-line tool

Computable world in your console

Created by magnificent @codenamev, here is command-line tool for query some things about reality right from your terminal:

$ reality "Neil Armstrong"
----------------------------------
#<Reality::Entity(Neil Armstrong)>
----------------------------------
         awards: #<Reality::List[Order of Culture?, Air Medal?, Collier Trophy?, Congressional Space Medal of Honor?, Gold Star?, Korean Service Medal?, Eagle Scout?, Sylvanus Thayer Award?, Arthur S. Flemming Award?, Distinguished Eagle Scout Award?, Langley Gold Medal?, Silver Buffalo Award?, Presidential Medal of Freedom?]>
    birth_place: #<Reality::Entity?(Wapakoneta)>
       birthday: #<Date: 1930-08-05>
    citizenship: #<Reality::Entity?(United States of America)>
  date_of_death: #<Date: 2012-08-25>
         father: #<Reality::Entity?(Stephen Koenig Armstrong)>
     given_name: "Neil"
    occupations: ["astronaut", "professor", "test pilot", "United States Naval Aviator", "aerospace engineer"]
  organizations: #<Reality::List[Boy Scouts of America?, Kappa Kappa Psi?, Phi Delta Theta?, Purdue All-American Marching Band?]>
        part_of: #<Reality::List[NASA Astronaut Group 2?]>
 place_of_death: #<Reality::Entity?(Cincinnati)>
            sex: "male"
         spouse: #<Reality::Entity?(Janet Shearon)>

It can be called as a chainable set of methods!

$ reality "Chiang Mai" country head_of_state father
Mahidol Adulyadej

And, for those alread accustomed for reality interactive console, it is still here, just add -i key:

$ reality -i
reality#1:001:0> E('Haruki Murakami').birth_place.describe
------------------------------
#<Reality::Entity(Kyoto):city>
------------------------------
      adm_divisions: #<Reality::List[Ukyō-ku?, Nakagyō-ku?, Yamashina-ku?, Shimogyō-ku?, Nishikyō-ku?, Minami-ku?, "Kita-ku, Kyoto"?, Fushimi-ku?, Higashiyama-ku?, Kamigyō-ku?, Sakyō-ku?]>
               area: #<Reality::Measure(827 km²)>
              coord: #<Reality::Geo::Coord(35°1′0″N,135°45′0″E)>
            country: #<Reality::Entity?(Japan)>
 head_of_government: #<Reality::Entity?(Daisaku Kadokawa)>
         located_in: #<Reality::Entity?(Kyōto Prefecture)>
          long_name: "Kyoto"
   official_website: "http://www.city.kyoto.lg.jp/"
         population: #<Reality::Measure(1,474,410 person)>
          tz_offset: #<Reality::TZOffset(UTC+09:00)>

Experimental Reality::Names module

Every constant in the world

That’s pretty new idea and I’m still vague about it, but experimental module Reality::Names allows you now to think about world objects as just a Ruby constants:

# standalone:
Reality::Names::GuidoVanRossum.age
# => 60

# include it elsewhere:
include Reality::Names

London.coord.distance_to(Paris)
# => #<Reality::Measure(343 km)>

Still can’t deside, whether it is cool or harmful, looking forward for your feedback!

Other goodies

There’s a lot of small and not-so-small changes in Reality internals; and more useful data properties here and there.

Also, there are some useful new features, like:

Basic country economy indicators integrated from Quandl/ODA dataset:

E('Nepal').economy.gdp
# => #<Reality::Measure(21,000,000,000 $)>

Entity#to_h converting entity to basic types, ready to be serialized:

require 'pp'
pp Reality::Entity('Bernie Sanders').to_h
# {:name=>"Bernie Sanders",
#  :birth_place=>"Brooklyn",
#  :sex=>"male",
#  :father=>"Eli Sanders",
#  :spouse=>"Jane O'Meara Sanders",
#  :citizenship=>"United States of America",
#  :position=>"United States Senator",
#  :occupations=>["writer", "politician"],
#  :awards=>
#   ["Congressional Activism Award",
#    "Col. Arthur T. Marix Congressional Leadership Award"],
#  :residence=>"Burlington",
#  :birthday=>"1941-09-08",
#  :given_name=>"Bernard",
#  :official_website=>"http://www.sanders.senate.gov",
#  :twitter_username=>"SenSanders"}

…and more!

Call to action!

Reality is still at the beginning of long and adventurous road! We’d be happy to see your ideas, pull requests, questions and application examples.

Our Wiki now have Contributing page, which roughly lists the areas where you can lay your hands on. Roadmap and Applications pages are listing our near and far plans. GitHub issues list current ideas and problems.

We really want to do something cool, want to do it with Ruby and for Ruby community, and want you to be part of it!