"A Ruby programmer will tell you to use "idiomatic" Ruby. The word "idiomatic" means something different to Ruby programmers than it does to everyone else in the world. To you and me "idiomatic" means "a confusing phrase only a native speaker would know and should be avoided in well written language". To a Ruby programmer "idiomatic" means "way.easy.most.natural.people.all.do.unless.real.programmer"."