= Melbourne

Melbourne is Rubinius[http://rubini.us]' parser component. The +melbourne+ gem extracts
this parser component for stand-alone use under MRI and other environments.

For Melbourne's full RDoc, see {rdoc.info}[http://rdoc.info/projects/marcoow/melbourne].

== Usage

Melbourne generates abstract syntax trees (ASTs) from Ruby source code:

    require 'melbourne'

    'class Test; end'.to_ast # => <AST::Class:0x1017800f8
                                    @line=1,
                                    @body=#<AST::EmptyBody:0x101780058 @line=1>,
                                    @name=#<AST::ClassName:0x101780080 @line=1, @superclass=#<AST::Nil:0x1017800a8 @line=1>, @name=:Test>,
                                    @superclass=#<AST::Nil:0x1017800a8 @line=1>>

== Abstract Syntax Trees

Abstract syntax trees allow for deep introspection of Ruby source code and are far
easier to handle than e.g. S-expressions as provided by ParseTree[http://parsetree.rubyforge.org/]
and other gems.

For more information on abstract syntax trees, see Wikipedia[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_trees].

== Authors

The original code of Melbourne is part of the {Rubinius project}[http://rubini.us/] and
was written by and is &copy; Evan Phoenix[http://github.com/evanphx/].

Melbourne was extracted from Rubinius into this gem by Marco Otte-Witte[http://simplabs.com].

== Bugs/ Feature Requests

the +melbourne+ gem is <b>not</b> maintained by the Rubinius[http://rubini.us] team! If you encounter
bugs or have feature requests, refer to the {Github repository}[http://github.com/marcoow/melbourne/issues].