From: Tapio Kelloniemi <no@...>
Date: 2007-02-09T06:55:09+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby as a configuration language

>I'm writing an automated software building framework in Ruby. The software
>compiles software packages from source code using human-written profiles. The
>profiles should be extremely easy to read and write by humans (and easy to
>parse by a program). I wish I could write the profiles in Ruby to avoid
>creating yet another advanced configuration language.

Thanks to all of you who responded. I thought that instance_eval would be the
solution, but I somehow overlooked it. Now I have to simulate scoping so that
code in archive and feature blocks may refer to things declared in the
top-level of the profile (which will not be real top-level, since the profile 
scripts get inctance_evaled, to avoid pollution of Object). Overriding 
method_missing probably solves this nicely.

Ruby is a great thing (although it lacks multiple dispatching and 
multiple inheritance)!

-- 
Tapio