Example of a good gist

gistfile1.txt

# a good gist is a very few, small pieces of easily digestible code
# please break long, heavily commented files into smaller chunks, with clearly defined questions
# and all the context required to communicate to a user what is happening

def longest_string(list)
  longest_so_far = list.first  
  for item in list        
    if item > longest_so_far   
      longest_so_far = item    
    end
  end
 
  return longest_so_far        
end

# the method above doesn't really work because
longest_string(["aaaa", "ccccc", "zz"]) # could be expected to return "ccccc" but returns "zz"
# so think about what detail is actually being compared on line 8, ie the unicode value of the character or the length of the element ? 

If it's returning 'ZZ', then that means it isn't measuring the length of the element but rather the unicode value.

Line #8: It's comparing the length of element. For instance, we want to see if "bobby" if is longer (character-wise) than "Johnny". If it is, we want "Bobby" to replace "Johnny".

If I invoke "ABC".length then it prints 3 to the value. If I do the "ABC".Length then that gives me an invalid method error.

Am I misunderstanding what the point of the longest_string & shortest_string is truly for?