ruby / ruby/prism

Modifying AST and generating source code

Open
#3,466 11 comments 3 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

enhancement
Dominant language
C
Stars
1k
Forks
194
Avg merge
2d 6h
Merged PRs (30d)
15

Description

Forgive my ignorance but I'm trying to use Prism to modify Ruby source (add nodes) and then regenerate the source to be interpreted. I'm using Prism.parse(text) and then implementing a Prism::Visitor to potentially modify the nodes as they are visited. I assume this is possible but I haven't really seen any examples of it. Finally I would like to 'unparse' the AST back into source code.

The Python equivalent is indeed unparse which is where I'm taking many of the ideas. They also have a NodeTransformer which is allowed to modify the nodes in the visit pattern. I don't see equivalents in Prism but perhaps you're always allowed to modify the nodes ... this is Ruby afterall.

Thanks for any help pointing me in the right direction!

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the Prism.parse(text) entry point and Prism::Visitor usage described in the issue. Check whether Prism documents mutable AST traversal or source regeneration, and identify the existing examples or tests covering these APIs. The scope is complete only when the supported transformation and unparse behavior are defined and documented or implemented.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
ruby
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.