In article <3AC2EEF6 / operamail.com>, Benjamin J. Tilly <ben_tilly / operamail.com> wrote: >>===== Original Message From claird / starbase.neosoft.com (Cameron Laird) ===== >>In article <20010325133102.A8477 / acmez.gatech.edu>, >> . >> . >> . >>>of Ruby and Pyton? There were even rumors that Perl6 will be able to >>>interpret Ruby/Python scripts ... >> >>There have been several schemes designed and >>implemented through the years for interpreting >>other languages in Perl contexts. I understand >>the probability is high that Perl6 will expose >>whole new parsing functionalities. One conse- >>quence will be that it'll be easier to move in >>the direction of Ruby interpretation, for example. >[...] > >My understanding is that Perl 6 will separate out the parsing >front end from the Perl backend. This is primarily intended >to allow people to create localized languages, special >mini-languages for configuration, and the like. But since the >back end is designed to look like Perl, implementing any >language in it with a completely different internal design >(like Ruby) would be painful. > >I am not following the 6.0 process closely, but that is my >expectation. . . . You're right in all you write. I understand that there some people anticipate advantages for Perl's Inline scheme, which is already capable of inte- grating a language like Ruby at least formally. I'll summarize: there are already ways to smash Perl and other languages, including Ruby, together. Perl6 should have some interesting parsing stuff. This stuff will mostly serve intrinsic Perl "small language" needs. It might happen that the Perl6 parsing stuff makes existing language-integration work easier. No one particularly expects that the Perl6 parsing plans will make Perl and Ruby deeply intimate. There *are* models for deep inter-language co-oper- ation, by the way. I can write about that, if there's interest. Warning: it's more ... speculative, and less applicable to current application development, than most of what's covered here. -- Cameron Laird <claird / NeoSoft.com> Business: http://www.Phaseit.net Personal: http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html