it seems my previous post didn't get through for some reason, so sorry if this is duplicated.
has anyone done something like this?
class NilClass def empty?; true; end def strip; nil; end def (s); nil; end end
so you can do this without throwing exception if !params[:s].empty? if !params[:s][:e].strip.empty?
as opposed to: if params[:s] && !params[:s].empty? if params[:s] && params[:s][:e] && !params[:s][:e].strip.empty?
I'm just wondering is there negative effects of doing this? if not
then shouldn't we be doing this. it makes your code look a lot nicer
doesn't it? 
- reynard