- IIRC MacRuby used to compile to native code on OSX using LLVM, and was supposed to support native OSX APIs and Objective-C frameworks. It always seemed like a neat idea, and a slick integration, but I guess Apple moved to Swift instead.
I'll have to pick up a copy of this "Ruby Under a Microscope" book when the new version comes out. I've always liked Ruby, I just haven't had much chance to use it.
by pasxizeis
1 subcomments
- Really happy to see Pat keeping it up! His first Ruby under a Microscope book but also his blog posts are amazing and a major source of inspiration for me. I did meet him personally in a Euruko conference. Such a great person.
- I loved Ruby Under a Microscope when I first read it, and using that knowledge was able to have fun with some CTFs years ago.
I haven't kept up with the evolving Ruby implementation internals, so I will sure as heck buy this new version of the book.
- Speaking of compiling Ruby. And Stripe coders who have used the Sorbet compiler?
https://sorbet.org/blog/2021/07/30/open-sourcing-sorbet-comp...
by AdieuToLogic
0 subcomment
- While not related to compiling Ruby, I found the book "Enterprise Integration with Ruby"[0] to be enlightening regarding using it outside of web applications.
0 - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/624316.Enterprise_Integr...
by killme2008
0 subcomment
- Glad to see that Ruby Under a Microscope is still being updated. It’s an essential read for anyone who wants to understand how Ruby works internally — and I truly enjoy reading it.
- Once a YJIT block executes enough times to warrant compilation, how does this system keep track of which types to compile for? Each block is tracking how many times it's entered, but not how many times it's entered for int or float or whatever types; so in the given example how would Ruby handle the compilation of the "opt_plus" stub when the input types may vary?
And by what process is the correct compiled block used depending on the input variable types?
- Ever since I discovered MRuby, I’ve had fun converting my projects and scripts into standalone executable files.
- > To find hot spots, YJIT counts how many times your program calls each function or block
At first glance this seems too simple. Compare it to JavaScript JITs, which IIRC can compile hot spots even in functions that are only called a few times (e.g. those that contain heavy loops) via on-stack replacement. (Although I’ve also heard on-stack replacement called a “party trick” - more useful for optimising benchmark scores than for real code.)
But on the other hand, Ruby’s language design might help here. Idiomatic Ruby uses blocks for loop bodies - so can Ruby JITs optimise long-running loops by treating the loop body as just another function?
- Making dynamically typed, single threaded languages faster via JIT usually comes at the cost of a significant increase in memory consumption which for businesses smaller than Shopify is a much more significant factor.
- I find that using C as an intermediate step really helps conceptualize this process. It can be tough to imagine how to represent a language like ruby as C. Essentially you have to start from the point that everything is an object and method calls on objects, then build up from that. Then C to assembler is more manageable. Ymmv.
- Great clear explanation of how YJIT and ZJIT work. The details on block compilation and counting make JIT internals more accessible to Ruby developers.
- How fast is Ruby, lately?
I haven't used it in about 10 years
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