Exploring the Relationship Between Service Objects and Procs in Ruby

Service objects, a popular design pattern in the Ruby on Rails community, are analogous to higher-order functions, and we can demonstrate that more clearly by refactoring one into a Proc without changing its API. The article shows how service objects have become a common pattern in Rails applications, offering a way to handle complexity and separate business logic from controllers. However, the author argues that service objects can become difficult to work with once a critical level of complexity is reached. To address this, the author suggests refactoring service objects into Procs, which maintain the same API but offer a simpler and more flexible approach. The article provides an example of refactoring a service object into a Proc and highlights the similarities between the two. It also mentions the limitations of using Procs in this way, such as the inability to refactor logic into private methods. Overall, the article offers an interesting perspective on the relationship between service objects and Procs in Ruby.