From: itsme213 <itsme213@...>
Date: 2004-11-10T15:43:32+09:00
Subject: Ruby code generation: string vs. AST based (2.0 or beyond)

Code generation in ruby is great.

The only thing I find is that, since it is essentially all string
manipulation prior to eval, none of it is executable (or testable!) until it
is eval'd. So I find myself writing straight code, testing it, then mentally
abstracting out the string patterns in that code, then using those in my
code generation.

Reading those string patterns more than a day later makes my brain hurt.

What are the chances, somewhere in or beyond 2.0, of code generation being
based on something more like the following:
 - write and test executable code
 - get access to an AST of that code itself
 - implement code generation by cloning/modifying the AST clone

This would require a published AST, some manipulations on it, and an eval
that takes ASTs.

Thanks.