From: Gully Foyle <nospam@...>
Date: 2004-07-24T07:56:59+09:00
Subject: Is Ruby to Objective-C Source Translator Easier?

Would it be easier to create a ruby to objective-c translator than it is 
to create a ruby compiler?  Given the following, it appears it might be 
easier to do this than converting ruby to pure c or c++.

Support for blocks in Objective-C described here (its been tested with 
POCS, not sure how many other compilers support this):

    http://users.pandora.be/stes/block98/index.html


And here's a short description of Objective-C from 
http://www.dekorte.com/Objective-C/

   C-based

       Unlike C++, Objective-C is a true superset of C.

   Dynamic

       Objective-C is dynamicaly typed so class libraries are much 
easier to deal with than in C++. The Objective-C run-time allows you to 
access methods and classes by their string names, as well as do dynamic 
linking and addition of classes and categories at runtime.

   Simple

       Unlike C++, Objective-C only extends the C language to support 
Smalltalk like OO features without any extra functional-programming baggage.

   Elegant

       Objective-C supports dynamic binding and has a messaging syntax 
like SmallTalk's.

   Example:

     [myColor setRed:0.0 green:0.5 blue:1.0];

   Fast

       Objective-C performs dynamicaly bound message calls very quickly 
(about 1.5-2.0 times as long as a C function call).