From: surrender_it@... (gabriele renzi @ google)
Date: 2004-08-05T19:11:28+09:00
Subject: Re: Macros in Ruby

> def_with_docstring(Object, "foo", "returns arg", "arg", "arg")
>   
> Object.new.foo("hi") # => "hi"
> 
> Yes, I am aware you can do more sophisticated implementation so you
> can make the above nicer. Yet, as nice as it will be, it won't be as
> simple as the example with macro; there will be quirkiness caused by
> the language syntax.

not that much, did you see the MetaTags system or the various
implementations of docstrings?

Something on the lines of:

doc 'this things does foo'
def foo
 ...
end

is quite trivial to do.

> For example, rake has this in its documentation: "NOTE: Because of a
> quirk in Ruby syntax, parenthesis are required on rule when the first
> argument is a regular expression."

IIRC this is related to bison not being good enough :)