Ruby and the Interpreter Pattern

 

This article was difficult to read for me because it is very technical, and I tend to be distracted easily. In addition, a need a more kinesthetic method for learning so just reading the application but not having anything I can do myself made it harder for me to learn the subject that was explained in the reading. That being said, I actually thanked a lot the small summarize put in each phase and the examples made it much clear for me.

The S-expression Interpreter Framework or SIF for short is a very useful tool to teach language design and language interpretation. It is based on the interpreter design pattern and it uses Ruby this allows to extend its capacities by adding primitive procedures and special forms. It is very useful to demonstrate different programming styles as well as advanced concepts of programming languages, such as variables, scopes, and continuations.

It explains the steps followed during the interpretation process. Something that helped me a lot was how the author explains the difference between the syntax interpretation and the semantics interpretation it made me realize that the order in which this two happen is very important. The syntax must be checked in the initialize method and the semantics in the interpreter method.

In conclusion, I think this was a very good lecture that I can relate to the current project we are doing in our Compiler design course. Even though, I don’t know Ruby I feel we could learn this quite fast since it is made to be easy and clear for the students and for me that is very important.