> > define a trivial #at operation first, and then write a replacement
> > for #[] in Ruby, using mostly #at and #length.
> 
> I'm thinking it would be an interesting idea to have a Ruby reference
> implementation where almost everything was implemented in Ruby (much as 
> most of Smalltalk is implemented in Smalltalk).
> The stripped-down interpreter provides the bare minimum, and the rest
> is written in Ruby.

I agree 100%.

matju