'html-table' gem and issues with HTML::Table::Head - ruby

Question

I'm creating two HTML tables. The first one is perfect, and the second one has the same HEAD as the first table no matter what I do.
Here's the problematic code:
require 'html/table'
include HTML
title1 = [1,2,3]
data1 = [1,2,3]
table1 = HTML::Table.new
table1.push Table::Head.create{ |row| row.content = title1 }
data1.each { |entry| table1.push Table::Row.new{|row| row.content = entry}}
title2 = [1,2]
data2 = [1,2]
table2 = HTML::Table.new
table2.push Table::Head.create{ |row| row.content = title2}
data2.each { |entry| table2.push Table::Row.new{ |row| row.content = entry}
}
This is the result from puts table1.html:
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
</table>
This is the result from puts table2.html:
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
</table>
There are no issues with the content but HEAD looks the same in both tables. Why?
EDIT:
I've simplified the initial code a bit:
`require 'html/table'
include HTML
s= Table::Head.create{ |row| row.content = 1 }
m= Table::Head.create{ |row| row.content = 2 }
puts s
<td>1</td>
puts m
<td>1</td>`
puts .inspect shows that both variables store same instance object>
puts s.inspect
puts m.inspect
[[#<HTML::Table::Row::Data:0x007ff52b096e38 #html_begin="<td", #html_body="1", #html_end="</td>">]]
[[#<HTML::Table::Row::Data:0x007ff52b096e38 #html_begin="<td", #html_body="1", #html_end="</td>">]]

Answer 1

Until now I was not aware of this gem and I don't understand the reason why someone would want to add this to his codebase. What value does it add? What do you accomplish WITH the gem that you can not accomplish WITHOUT?
The reason you see the same output is because it is the same object that is returned from create:
require 'html/table'
include HTML
s = Table::Head.create{ |row| row.content = 1 }
m = Table::Head.create{ |row| row.content = 2 }
puts s.object_id == m.object_id # => true
If you look at the source code (https://github.com/djberg96/html-table/blob/master/lib/html/head.rb#L18) then it is clear that this is intended behavior:
# This is our constructor for Head objects because it is a singleton
# class. Optionally, a block may be provided. If an argument is
# provided it is treated as content.
#
def self.create(arg=nil, &block)
##head = new(arg, &block) unless ##head
##head
end
According to this code and the comment a <thead> is a singleton and should only exist once.
Without looking any further into the library and how it works: IMHO treating <thead> as a singleton is plain wrong and a reason to stop using this library right away. You could contact the author if you are curious.
As a rule of thumb: when there is class level variables (##) then there is trouble.
So what can you do?
You need to create a HTML table outside of a web framework like Rails? You could:
Use ERB: http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.3.1/libdoc/erb/rdoc/ERB.html
HTML is "just XML (tm)" so you can use REXML: http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib-1.9.3/libdoc/rexml/rdoc/REXML.html
These are both "built in" solutions. Available in your Ruby right away. But you could also use a different templating solution (haml, slim, ...) or, because REXML interface is not the most straightforward i think, another XML generator (ox, oga, nokogiri) or builder/xml.