This started off as a bit of an amusement just to see if i could show the elegance of Ruby — and find a way to help me memorize the suffix-addition-heuristics that characterize inflected languages like Latin.
As usual, it quickly became much more than that.
Known Issue:
The macrons are slightly off, particularly in the 3rd person plural ( no vowel before ‘nt’ should ever be lengthened ). I’ll write a fixer routine soon.
[code lang="ruby"]
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
class Verb < Object
attr_reader :firstpersonform, :infinitive,
:perfectstem, :passperfpart, :stem
def initialize(initString)
(@firstpersonform, @infinitive,
@perfectstem, @passperfpart)=initString.split(/,\s+/)
pparts=initString.split(/,\s+/)
@passive_endings = ["r", "ris", "tur",
"mur", "min\xc4\xab", "ntur"]
@personages = ["First Singular", "Second Singular",
"Third Singular",
"First Plural", "Second Plural", "Third Plural"]
end
def stem
# For efficiency, if the iVar @stem is defined, don't go
# through this structure
return @stem unless @stem.nil?
if @infinitive =~ /?re$/
return @stem = @infinitive.gsub(/(.*)?re$/,'\\1?')
end
if @infinitive =~ /?re$/
return @stem = @infinitive.gsub(/(.*)?re$/,'\\1?')
end
end
def to_s
return "#{self.firstpersonform} #{self.infinitive}
#{self.perfectstem} #{self.passperfpart}"
end
def present_passive
local_pe=@passive_endings.clone
return [@firstpersonform + "r",
local_pe[1..-1].map{|x| self.stem + x}].flatten!
end
def imperfect_passive
imperfect_stem = self.stem + "b\xc4\x81"
return @passive_endings.map{|x| "#{imperfect_stem}#{x}"}
end
def future_passive
fp_stem=self.stem+"bi"
standards = @passive_endings[2..-1].map{|x| fp_stem + x}
return [@stem + "b\xc5\x8d", @stem + "beris", standards].flatten!
end
def passive_system
p_sys_hash= { :label=>@personages,
:present => self.present_passive,
:imperfect => self.imperfect_passive,
:future => self.future_passive}
0.upto(5) do |index|
printf("%-15s %-10s %-16s %s\n",
p_sys_hash[:label][index],
p_sys_hash[:present][index],
p_sys_hash[:imperfect][index],
p_sys_hash[:future][index]
)
end
puts "\n\n"
end
end
[/code]
x=Verb.new("laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudatus")
puts x
x.passive_system
y=Verb.new("moneō monēre, monuī, monitus")
puts y
y.passive_system
And the output?
laudō laudāre laudāvī laudatus
First Singular laudōr laudābār laudābō
Second Singular laudāris laudābāris laudāberis
Third Singular laudātur laudābātur laudābitur
First Plural laudāmur laudābāmur laudābimur
Second Plural laudāminī laudābāminī laudābiminī
Third Plural laudāntur laudābāntur laudābintur
moneō monēre monuī monitus
First Singular moneōr monēbār monēbō
Second Singular monēris monēbāris monēberis
Third Singular monētur monēbātur monēbitur
First Plural monēmur monēbāmur monēbimur
Second Plural monēminī monēbāminī monēbiminī
Third Plural monēntur monēbāntur monēbintur
I don’t think that you have to be a Ruby guru to see that Ruby code is incredibly tight. Interestingly enough, Latin, as according to the gospel of Wheelocki, is taught in a very programmatic heuristic manner. You’re taught to carry a certain data file of critical givens on your biological hard drive ( a verb has 4 principal parts, the principal parts of “to praise” …. ) and then are taught a series of transformations to be performed on those 4 principal parts. Working those out is an exercise being a mental computer, mutating data according to heuristic and spitting it out.
Interestingly, when printing technology was much more expensive ( or, students were much more rebellion-prone when forced to pay outrageous prices for books ) Latin instruction was a few terse rules and the homework was “Write out the application of these heuristics to the following data items”. With the rules, and the given inputs, the human scribbler would write out the references he would need to be able to advance to the next chapter.
I have a certain admiration for this method.
But I also have ruby, and remembering how i applied a few map()s or flatten!() statements is just as good.
