From: Markus <markus@...>
Date: 2004-10-08T14:30:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Range behavior (Re: [RCR] New [] Semantics)

On Thu, 2004-10-07 at 22:08, trans. (T. Onoma) wrote:
> On Thursday 07 October 2004 11:20 pm, Markus wrote:

> |      That is to say, I'm still trying to get free form operators
> | working.
> 
> All power to you! If it can be done, I think it is a very excellent thing for 
> Ruby to have.

     I've fixed the one bug I found in the pre-alpha version.  I want to
do some more test cases (and probably put it up on a web page w. the
test cases rather than sending the patch to the list again--though I
never quite know the etiquette).  Should have something in about 12
hours, & will post the URL.

    Can/do you compile from source?  The last version was shaky, but
it's getting better as I pound on it.  If possible, I'd like you (or
anyone else who's interested) to test it out.  Specifically, I'm
interested in finding any:

      * Bug/crashes--I'm aiming for none, of course

      * Incompatibility with existing code--I'd like this to break
        absolutely nothing.  Anything that worked in unpatched ruby
        should work the same way with the patch

      * Shortfalls in addressing the extensibility goals (i.e., does
        this just get us to the next roadblock, or would it be possible
        to implement something like Neo_range or Uber_hash with all of
        the properties of the built-in classes?  I suspect that we're
        not there yet, but I'm not sure where the next hurdle is. 
        Compile-time constructors, probably, but what else?

      * Timing/speed issues--in theory my code should be slightly slower
        than the original, but I'm not seeing it.  It could be that C
        programmers just habitually write for speed rather than clarity,
        but it is as or more likely I'm missing something.

    -- Markus