From: James Britt <james_b@...>
Date: 2005-08-16T02:26:52+09:00
Subject: Re: Building a REPL for Ruby

Phil Tomson wrote:
> ...
> 'scuse my ignorance, but what's a REPL?

Read Eval Print Loop


> 
> 
>>I was thinking of using Ruby/C but I've never wrote anything like  
>>this before.  Is their any tips anyone can give me so I can uphold  
>>ruby's honor?
>>
> 
> 
> I guess I'm really out of it here, but how can writing something in a 
> language other than Ruby uphold Ruby's 'honor'?
> 

Putting aside the general idea that any deep concern over upholding 
"honor" for some a programming language suggests a certain	 
irrationality, I'll offer a guess:

"Language Foo is so complex|convoluted|inconsistent that writing a Foo 
REPL is an inherently non-trivial task when using any language other 
than Foo (which may already include REPL-friendly functions, such as 
'eval()' )."

The flip side proves nothing; it is easy to define trivial languages 
such that a REPL may be written in near-zero lines of code.  Does ease 
of REPL-witting indicate concise, clear language design, or show that 
the language is merely simplistic?

Anyway, as for those who do not care for Ruby, I'd say let 'em be; not 
using Ruby is punishment enough.

James Britt


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