From: "trans.  (T. Onoma)" <transami@...>
Date: 2004-10-27T09:12:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Inline YAML in Ruby code - possible? converse?

On Tuesday 26 October 2004 04:54 pm, Peter wrote:
| > You can use Peter Vanbroekhoven's patch for user defined %-methods. Find
| > it here:
| >
| >   http://developer.berlios.de/projects/suby/
|
| I just wanted to add that if you find the courage to patch the Ruby source
| and recompile it, be aware that the patch is not backward compatible with
| current Ruby; it breaks a number of things, and changes some other things.

Hmm.. that sort of makes it sound like it will bring down your whole system :) 
I don't think its that bad. I've tried it and works rather well. Here are the 
specific notes below. Is there more to it than these points? If no, then I 
think it's pretty usable. Just be aware of following potential snags.

Notes: Patches the ruby source (v1.8.2, may work for other versions) such that 
it allows to redefine the %-literals. The literals are enabled when passing 
-% as option to the Ruby interpreter. This is done to enable Ruby to still 
compile its extensions, since there are a number of backwards 
incompatibilities incurred by this patch:

    * %x becomes %X (%x still works but without escaping)
    * %r becomes %R (ditto)
    * The o option for %r is broken.
    * %W is _terminally_ broken. Try %W{ hello\ world #{} } 
      and see what happens before & after.
    * 'def %a' no longer means 'def %(a)'
    * Cannot be called with a receiver

Nontheless, it is an expiremental patch. Do not use in production 
environments!

| If you have some patience, I'll brew a version that can retain backward
| compatibility at the price of lack of uniformity.

I'd prefer the uniformity. I don't think %r and %x, nor def %a, are commonly 
used enough to fuss about. /%r/%R/ is easy enough any way.

T.