Create MacRuby methods from Objective-C signatures

2008-12-29T00:00:00-08:00

The MacRuby.tmbundle now supports a feature first introduced into the RubyCocoa.tmbundle: the ability to create new methods from Objective-C signatures.

To create new methods in Ruby, you can type ‘def’ and TAB. Now, if you copy the signature of an Objective-C method into the clipboard you can create a MacRuby version of it with the ‘m’ snippet.

See samples (or gist):

class SpeechController
  # from - (void)speechSynthesizer:(NSSpeechSynthesizer *)sender willSpeakWord:(NSRange)wordToSpeak ofString:(NSString *)text
  def speechSynthesizer(sender, willSpeakWord: wordToSpeak, ofString: text)
  
  end

  # from speechSynthesizer:willSpeakWord:ofString:
  def speechSynthesizer(speechSynthesizer, willSpeakWord: speakWord, ofString: string)
    
  end
  
  def someMethod
    # self.m expanded becomes
    self.speechSynthesizer(sender, willSpeakWord: wordToSpeak, ofString: text)
  end
end

In the first example the full signature was in the clipboard. In the second example, a shortened version of the method signature was in the clipboard. In this latter example the method argument names are automagically calculated.

In the first example, the ‘.m’ snippet will generate a method invocation version of the signature.

In all examples, the arguments are tab stops to make it easy to rename arguments.

Get the latest MacRuby.tmbundle via git.

Running MacRuby inside TextMate

2008-12-19T00:00:00-08:00

In normal Ruby files, Cmd+R will run the ruby script and output any STDOUT to an HTML-based window. If the file is a MacRuby script, then we want it to run through macruby instead.

My initial attempt was to clone over the Ruby.tmbundle’s Run command, and all its Support files, change $TM_RUBY from ruby to macruby and watch awesomeness unfold.

Unfortunately, awesomeness had to wait. The ruby files had some ruby 1.9 incompatibilities. So I fixed those (no more $KCODE, etc). Then big challenges were discovered. There are ruby 1.9 incompatibilities, and perhaps macruby incompatibilities within TextMate’s own Support folder.

My initial attempt to start fixing them has been to pull in TextMate’s own Support folder into this bundle as a SharedSupport folder. We can now hack away at it and attempt to get this working.

I found an issue with osx/plist.bundle. On my local machine I pulled down the plist.bundle source which apparently has a ruby 1.9 fix in it, rebuilt it and added it back into the bundle. But it still fails. In fact, the plist.bundle src’s own tests are currently failing for ruby1.9 and macruby.

Then there are some issues with io.rb and process.rb I think. These are some dark, mysterious areas of Ruby behaviour that I am merely a happy user of, rather than an intrepid explorer.

So MacRuby runtime support within TextMate had a short, disappointing burst of life. If you are able to poke around and fix a few bugs, please try running the “Run” and “Run Rake Task” commands, observer the failure and see what you can do.