Ruby and the interpreter pattern

Ruby and the interpreter pattern

Today im going to talk about a paper written by my very own teacher of computer science career, Ariel Ortiz. This paper is about a very interesting aprouch of using ruby to teach language design.

As I said this blog will be about using ruby and the interpreter pattern, to explain compilers design in a much more explanatory way.

The code provided by the auther is like a compiler that simulates lisp-like functions. This code is written in Ruby language and it actually creates structures in a very similar way to Lisp. So you can cosnider this code as a good example of teaching a new approach in compiler design courses.

The Author explained that is easier to teach langauges design beacuse this way the programmer eliminates a lot of ambigous and abstract concept and leaves the very core of the language design concept.

Of course this s a very usefull tool to teach and learn about compiler design, but you first need to understand about design patterns so you can easily see how the interpreter pattern suggested by the auther, helps to understand abstract concepts of a compiler design.

It is a very interesting aproach of the teacher to find out another way of explaing this type of subject, by removing the unnecesary concept and to take a very practical and usefull tool to make class excercises and self-explanaoty examples. I found this paper very interesting, maybe beacuse im also at the moment in the design and architecture course, and I could learn more about the interpreter pattern.

You can access the paper in the next reference, or get in touch to the author, Ariel Ortiz of the paper at Tecnologico de Monterrey for more information.

References:

Language Design and Implementation using Ruby and the Interpreter Pattern”. by Ariel Ortiz