I just did my first metaprogramming in Ruby and it got my heart beating fast, thinking about the possibilities.

module ApplicationHelper
 ApplicationController.class_eval do
   layout "standard-layout"
 end
end

This makes all ApplicationControllers use the layout "standard-layout", defined from a central location. The source of this string could be anything from a cookie to preferences stored on a model object, and obviously one would probably not apply it to ApplicationController indiscriminately; but the concept is fun :)

Anoter example would be for a routeless static content controller:

class StaticController < ApplicationController
 def method_missing(action)
   render :action => action.to_s
 end
end

This basically emulates having a method defined for any that is called and renders a template of same name using the rhtml file in the views directory. Again, maybe not the best way to have static content, but it's a fun idea.

That is one thing that scares me about metaprogramming--without discipline and a concept of what's best vs. what's cool, an app can become hell very quickly.