From: Simon Cozens <simon@...>
Date: 2002-10-24T06:21:29+09:00
Subject: Re: NODE tree introspection

ptkwt@shell1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson) writes:
> Yes and no.  Since Ruby doesn't use a bytecode interpretting virtual 
> machine (instead it walks an AST) what exactly do you mean by bytecode 
> here (or are you defining a bytecode for Ruby).

Sorry; "bytecode" is probably the wrong word because it implies some kind
of serialized assembler. I'm using it in a much looser sense. Perl walks
an AST, too. But being able to get at and fiddle with the AST leads to a
lot of very interesting things: serialization of the internal form to disk
so you *do* get true bytecode, translation to C, graphing the internal
structure of the program, and so on. 

My ulterior motive, of course, is to enable a Ruby->Parrot backend.

> I think what you're working on is very important and would be useful for a 
> variety of projects (Like Cardinal for example).  Please if possible can 
> you start up a sourceforge or savannah project for this?

I'll need some help; as I'm very new to Ruby, I don't know exactly what's
required to set up and distribute a Ruby extension the politically correct
way. :)

What I'll do is dump the code into my CVS tree, and make it publically
available, and I can give you or whoever else commit access to
that. I'll also send you the code off-list for now, because I have to head
away for a few days.

-- 
perl -le 'print (@) - $; +$ (- % _); * *+* *'