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Okay, I'm working an a robotics project and instead of using C could I
actually write it in ruby then convert it into C code?

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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

On Nov 9, 2006, at 2:10 AM, Paul Lutus wrote:

> Mohammad --- wrote:
>
>> Okay, I'm working an a robotics project and instead of using C
>> could I
>> actually write it in ruby then convert it into C code?
>
> If you mean convert automatically, no, not really. Not unless what
> you write
> in Ruby is very generic, and you don't use any of C's distinct
> properties.
> If that were true, converting to C would have little point.

Not quite accurate. Depending on what you're doing ruby2c might work.
Given that it is a robotics program, we're generally talking fairly
boring prorgamming anyhow. It might be translatable with ruby2c,
possibly even without much work.

> Why do you think you need to convert to C?

Presumably so he can download the program to the robot and ruby
doesn't run there.

> For speed? I have written a
> number of projects in Ruby because the development time is so
> short, then,
> after establishing the design, I converted to a faster language.
> But the
> conversion was by no means easy.

There are several much easier ways to make your ruby fast. Usually
keeping most everything ruby. Full ports are my absolute LAST option.