Doing conversions for you so you don’t have to google them and making code more readable.
Having code that looks like this is meaningless
miles = 8 * 1609.344
You could add comments
miles = 8 * 1609.344 # converting meters to miles
But why not have this!
8.meters.to.miles
You can even perform mathematical operations
10.kilometers + 1.mile # 11.609344 kilometers
gem sources -a http://gemcutter.org sudo gem install alchemist
require 'rubygems' require 'alchemist'
Or if you’re using rails
config.gem 'alchemist', :source => 'http://gemcutter.org'
- metres or meters
- fermis
- microns
- chains
- inches
- microinches
- mils
- rods
- leagues
- feet
- yards
- miles
- astronomical_units
- light_years
- parsecs
- nautical_miles
- admirality_miles
- fathoms
- cable_lengths
- angstroms
- picas
- printer_picas
- points
- printer_points
- grams or grammes
- carats
- ounces
- pennyweights
- pounds
- troy_pounds or apothecary_pounds
- slugs
- assay_tons
- metric_tons
- tons or short_tons
- litres or liters
- barrels
- bushels
- cubic_meters
- cups
- imperial_fluid_ounces
- fluid_ounces
- imperial_gallons
- gallons
- imperial_gills
- gills
- pints
- liquid_pints
- quarts
- liquid_quarts
- tablespoons
- teaspoons