And here's my solution. It passes all given tests but still there are
some tricky cases not handled well (see: code comments). I used
regular expressions extensively but it may not be the best idea in
terms of performance.

Thanks for the quiz!!

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

# Solution to Ruby Quiz #155 (see http://www.rubyquiz.com/quiz155.html)
# by Pawe=B3 Radecki (pawel.j.radecki / gmail.com).

$KCODE=3D'UTF-8'
require 'jcode'

class JSONParser

  def parse(input)
    case input
    # TODO: in every case we need to check if pattern matches the
input thoroughly and nothing is left;
    # ex. "[3, 5] Pablos" still not handled well, it passes through
instead of giving exception

    when '' : raise RuntimeError

    # TODO: There needs to be some smart way of choosing whether we
found an object or an array;
    # now object has priority and it may be found instead of an
array

    #object
    when /\{(".+"):(.+)\s*(,\s*(".+"):(.+))+\}/ then
      h =3D Hash.new
      $&[1...-1].split(/(.*:.*)?\s*,\s*(.*:.*)?/).each do |e|
        a =3D e.split(/:\s*(\{.*\}\s*)?/);
        h[parse(a.first)] =3D parse(a.last) unless (a.first.nil? &&
a.last.nil?)
      end
      h
    when /\{\s*(".+")\s*:\s*(.+)\s*\}/ then { parse($1) =3D> parse($2) }
    when /\{\s*\}/ : Hash.new

    #array
    when /\[.+\]/ then $&[1...-1].split(/(\[.*\])?\s*,\s*(\[.*
\])?/).collect{|e| parse(e)}
    when /\[\s*\]/ then []

    #constants
    when /true/ then
      if ($`.strip.empty? && $'.strip.empty?) then true else raise
RuntimeError end
    when /false/ then
      if ($`.strip.empty? && $'.strip.empty?) then false else raise
RuntimeError end
    when /null/ then nil
      if ($`.strip.empty? && $'.strip.empty?) then nil else raise
RuntimeError end

    #string
    when /"([A-Za-z]|(\s)|(\\")|(\\\\)|(\\\/)|(\\b)|(\\f)|(\\n)|(\\r)|
(\\t)|(\\u[0-9a-fA-F]{4,4}))+"/ : $&[1...-1].gsub(/\\"/, '"').gsub(/\
\n/, "\n").gsub(/\\u([0-9a-fA-F]{4,4})/u){["#$1".hex ].pack('U*')}
    when /""/ then ""

    #number
    when /-?(0|([1-9][0-9]*))(\.[0-9]+)?([e|E][+|-]?[0-9]+)?/ then
      if ($`.strip.empty? && $'.strip.empty?) then eval($&) else raise
RuntimeError end
    else
      raise RuntimeError
    end
  end
end

#puts JSONParser.new.parse(ARGV.first)

--
Pawe=B3 Radecki
e: pawel.j.radecki / gmail.com
w: http://radeckimarch.blogspot.com/