From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2002-12-06T07:46:59+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] ratlast 0.1 -- embedded FORTH in Ruby

Mark Probert wrote:
...
> The main idea that I have for ratlast is as a user-extensible command
> language for Ruby applications.  For example, what do you do if you have
> a running Ruby system that you can't take down, yet you have to add some
> functionality?  That is very easy to do using ratlast.

I like this idea. It's possible to generate C code, compile it, and load 
the dynamic lib, but that requires a C compiler, takes a fair amount of 
cpu time, etc. If you want to trade run speed for compile speed, 
Forth-like code is worth a look.

What kind of code-threading model do you use? Token, direct, indirect, 
jump? If you're using jump-threaded code, you can have bits of inline 
assembly code, so performance could approach compiled C.

Do you plan to provide any kind of API to ruby objects, so you can 
access instance vars, call methods, etc.?