On Sunday 30 April 2006 07:25 pm, Phil Jackson wrote:
> I think you may have mis-understood my question (or I didn't explain
> properly), what I was asking was more a design question than a general "I'm
> building yet another editor what do you think" question. As you took the
> time to write a response I'll answer you though (check bottom where I
> re-phase my query):

I think I understood your question ;-)  

> To be honest I'd like to start from scratch and see what I come up with,
> secondly I _hate_ GUI based editors personally.

But seeing the above clarification, I understand where you want to go 
(non-GUI) and that you want to start from scratch.

Nevertheless, I'm sure your revised questions (below) will be helpful to 
others who respond.

Randy Kramer

> What I was actually trying to ask was:
>
> The base will be written in C not in pure Ruby. I would like to know
> whether people think I would be better using C types at the core or Ruby
> types implimented in C. So, I can, A),  write a basic editor in C and then
> wrap it up with Ruby using Data_Wrap_Struct() much like an extenstion
> would. Or I can, B), start from the beginning with rb_define_class() and
> friends thus relying on Ruby from the start. The advantages and
> dis-advantages that I think may exsist:
>
> a) advantages:
>     * The core of the application would be instantly reconisable to a C
>       hacker who has no Ruby experience.
>     * If I decide it should be extendable by another language it would be a
>       simple job.
>     * Better performance?
>
>    disadvantages:
>     * I would have to impliment and then map things like linked lists
>       meaning wheel re-invention.
>     * more work :)
>     * Can't rely on libruby for memory handling.
>
> So which one?