Shorten the edit-develop-compile cycle.pptVIP

15-441 Ruby Recitation Automation:Time to learn Ruby Vyas Sekar Why do we want a scripting language? Why not Assembly, C, C++, Java .. Much easier to program in Shorten the edit-develop-compile cycle Re-use existing components E.g. TCP server, retrieve web pages Easy short-cuts for common operations Text-processing, Strings, Regexp Fewer low-level hassles Types, memory management etc Some examples Shell-script Sed/Awk Perl Python Tcl/Tk Smalltalk ….. Some downsides .. Most commonly cited: Performance Not good for .. Compute-intensive operations Creating data structures, algorithms Less true as hardware makes up .. Common problem: unpredictable .. Interpreted, not compiled Don’t require types/initialization Another common problem: mysterious.. From the manpage: Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but dont tell anyone I said that. Ruby .. Some background Often called “multi-paradigm” Procedural + OOP + Functional features But a high-level scripting language! Philosophy: Principle of Least Surprise What you expect is most likely what you get Features Truly object-oriented Support for Perl-like regular expressions Syntax a lot like Python/Perl Trivia: The language was created by Yukihiro Matz Matsumoto , 1995 Okay … Lets get started File: Helloworld.rb #! /usr/bin/ruby #-- # please have useful comments # unlike the one here! def sayHelloworld(name) #-- puts Hello world #{name} #-- end #-- sayHelloworld(vyas) #-- Basic syntax rules Comments start with a # character, go to EOL Each expression is delimited by ; or newlines Using newlines is the Ruby way Local variables, method parameters, and method names should all start with a lowercase letter or _ Global variables are prefixed with a $ sign Class names, module names, and constants should start with an uppercase letter Class instance variables begin with an @ sign Control structures The usual suspects if, while, for, until Iterators: each if example if (score 10) puts You ha