From: Jim Weirich <jim@...>
Date: 2004-05-11T02:45:07+09:00
Subject: Re: in search of a compelling reason to use ruby....

Phil Tomson wrote:

> Quick example:  I'm taking a Quantum Computing class.  The prof is looking 
> for a language for designing quantum circuits.  I signed up for the 
> project and createed a 'language' I call QDL (Quantum Design Language), 
> but it's reeally just plain Ruby under the covers - no parser needs be 
> created.

This is the same approach I used when writing a Build Control Language 
to replace make.  I used Ruby blocks to describe the actions associated 
with tasks.

Example:

   task :compile do |t|
     java.compile t.source
   end

By making making the entire build file Ruby code, I have an incredibly 
powerful build language.  This would have been much more clumsy without 
the use of blocks.

-- 
-- Jim Weirich    jim@weirichhouse.org     http://onestepback.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct,
not tried it." -- Donald Knuth (in a memo to Peter van Emde Boas)