From: why the lucky stiff <ruby-talk@...>
Date: 2005-09-21T05:28:59+09:00
Subject: Re: Reading the ruby source

Robbie Carlton wrote:

>Hi.
>I'd like to read the ruby source (that is, the source that when compiled, 
>yields the ruby interpreter). I have them, and I've had a look, but I just 
>get overwhelmed. I've never read a big c program before, and I was wondering 
>if anyone had any advice on where to start, or if there has been any 
>documentation?
>
Try README.EXT which comes with Ruby.  It'll give ya a quick gloss over 
everything.

 From there, I'd look over ruby.h and intern.h, which will give you a 
tour of the major structs and functions.

When you start diving into the various source files, note the Init_ 
functions at the end of each of them.  (string.c has an Init_String, 
marshal.c has Init_marshal, etc.)  These functions create the actual 
Ruby modules, classes and methods from their C counterparts.

_why