Compiling Ruby on the CLR

The implementation of statically typed programming languages on the .NET CLR is by now well understood [1]. However, the situation with dynamic languages is not so clear. Typically such languages have objects that are dynamically typed, while the CLR is statically typed at the instruction code level. Nevertheless there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that the CLR can be a suitable target for such languages [2]. In order to better understand the issues involved we set out to create a full implementation of the Ruby language on the CLR. This paper describes the challenges faced and design decisions made in creating Ruby.NET – a Ruby compiler for the CLR.