How to alias keywords?

Ruby
1

It’s easy to alias method names. Is there a way I can alias keywords
like if or end? I want to localize Ruby code to another human language
for learning/educational purposes.

Any way I can get ruby or to understand new synonyms for keywords?

2

El Viernes, 18 de Diciembre de 2009, Sonja Kisa escribió:

It’s easy to alias method names. Is there a way I can alias keywords
like if or end? I want to localize Ruby code to another human language
for learning/educational purposes.

Any way I can get ruby or to understand new synonyms for keywords?

IMHO this is not possible at all.

3

you can do it like this:
def IF(condition)
if condition
yield
end
end

IF(true){
puts “yes”
}

4

Maybe I need to edit parse.y or something.

5

From #ruby-lang on Freenode IRC tonight:

[21:44] Sonja:

[21:44] <argv[0]> right. you either get “if” or you get “somethingelse”,
but not both
[21:45] if you want both, you’ll have to declare both
english and otherlanguage as keywords and then modify the grammar
productions to accept both
[21:46] <argv[0]> yea, that.
[21:46] <argv[0]> which is not quite as easy
[21:46] essentially: if expr then? expr => (if|fi) expr
(then|neht)?
[21:46] just a bit tedious considering how f’d up the yacc
file is
[21:47] but start with something that isn’t replicated in C
like class or module
[21:47] experiment with that one change
[21:47] and then expand
[21:48] should all just be algebraic changes, substitute A|B
for all A
[21:50] looks like the 1.9 (trunk) version is very cleaned
up… keyword_elsif… very easy to track down all versions then
[21:51] yacc kinda sucks… but we’re stuck with it
(coughfor nowcough)
[21:52] my algebraic statement above isn’t quite that easy
since yacc doesn’t support EBNF productions cleanly… but you’ll get it
[22:06] <argv[0]> Sonja this is about as good as it gets without messing
with parse.y insane.rb · GitHub

6

On Dec 17, 2009, at 11:12 PM, Sonja Elen K. wrote:

Maybe I need to edit parse.y or something.

Most definitely. But I don’t see much of a point in it:

  1. You will have to distribute the changed version of
    Ruby by yourself. If the users have to run it on their
    own computer, this can be a hassle.

  2. The users will have a mismatch between their stuff
    and every piece of ruby code out there, especially
    tutorials and books, basically making self-tutoring
    a pain.

  3. You will have to make sure that “normal” Ruby code
    still runs.

I don’t know whether thats worth the hassle if your
course is not very “special interest”.

Regards,
Florian