Digesting MRI by Studying Alternative Ruby Implementations

Pointers, managing memory and static typing - writing C code is hard! However, most programming languages, including Matz's Ruby Interpreter (MRI), are implemented in a low level programming language. So you think without knowing these concepts, you can not contribute to Ruby? Wrong! Although MRI is implemented in C, fortunately there are Ruby's in Java, Go and even Ruby itself.

If you ever wanted to learn about Ruby internals without being a C expert, this talk is for you. Join me on my journey of re-implementing hash maps in JRuby, breaking bundler and actually learn to write (some) C code.

Transcript

1. What defines a “Senior Developer”?
2. Experience
3. Leadership
4. Mentor
5. Communication
6. “Masters” Programming
7. “Masters” Ruby
8. Digesting MRI by Studying Alternative Ruby Implementations
9. Hello! I am 
 Christian Bruckmayer
 
 @bruckmayer
 bruckmayer.net
10. Bristol
12. MRI Rubinius / Opal JRuby
13. MRI / CRuby 1993 Programming language: C Known for: Reference implementation, Matz
14. “Masters” Ruby
15. Ruby is a computer program
18. array = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] # => [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] puts array.minmax # => [1, 9] puts [array.min, array.max] # => [1, 9]
19. require 'benchmark-driver' Benchmark.driver do |x| x.prelude <<~RUBY arr = (1..1000).map { rand } RUBY x.report %{ arr.minmax } x.report %{ [arr.min, arr.max] } end
20. Warming up -------------------------------------- arr.minmax 36.970k i/s - 40.436k times in 1.093742s (27.05μs/i) [arr.min, arr.max] 67.366k i/s - 72.435k times in 1.075249s (14.84μs/i) Calculating ------------------------------------- arr.minmax 36.784k i/s - 110.910k times in 3.015196s (27.19μs/i) [arr.min, arr.max] 67.324k i/s - 202.097k times in 3.001869s (14.85μs/i) Comparison: [arr.min, arr.max] : 67323.7 i/s arr.minmax : 36783.7 i/s - 1.83x slower
24. Embrace Failure
25. Challenged
26. Inspired
27. MRI Rubinius / Opal JRuby
28. Rubinius 2006 Programming language: Ruby, C, C++ Known for: Implemented as much as possible in Ruby
29. Opal 2010 Programming language: Java Script, Ruby Known for: Ruby to Java Script, Ruby in the Browser
31. puts "Hello Indonesia".delete_prefix("Hello ") # Indonesia
32. def delete_prefix(prefix) prefix = Rubinius::Type.check_convert_type prefix, String, :to_str return self[prefix.size..-1] if self.start_with?(prefix) dup end Rubinius
33. def delete_prefix(prefix) %x{ if (!prefix.$$is_string) { #{prefix = Opal.coerce_to(prefix, String, :to_str)} } if (self.slice(0, prefix.length) === prefix) { return self.$$cast(self.slice(prefix.length)); } else { return self; } } end Opal
34. "foobar".delete_prefix(:foo) # TypeError (no implicit conversion of Symbol into String) :foo.to_s # "foo" :foo.to_str # NoMethodError (undefined method `to_str' for :foo:Symbol)
35. def delete_prefix(prefix) prefix = Rubinius::Type.check_convert_type prefix, String, :to_str return self[prefix.size..-1] if self.start_with?(prefix) dup end Rubinius
36. vs prefix = :Hello.to_s “Hello ID”.delete_prefix(prefix) class Prefix def to_str “Hello" end end “Hello ID”. delete_prefix(Prefix.new) Explicit Implicit
37. class Path def to_str "/chris" end end puts "home" + Path.new # home/chris
38. class Path def to_s "/chris" end end puts "home" + Path.new # Traceback (most recent call last): # `+': no implicit conversion of Path into String (TypeError)
40. Three Lines of Code
41. Implicit vs. Explicit
42. MRI Rubinius / Opal JRuby
43. JRuby 2001 Programming language: Java Known for: JVM, Concurrency, Fast
44. It aims to be a complete, correct and fast implementation of Ruby
46. 40 % Faster
48. Rubinius 2006 Programming language: Ruby, C, C++ Known for: Implemented as much as possible in Ruby
50. /* Find an entry with KEY in table TAB. Return non-zero if we found it. Set up *RESULT to the found table entry key. */ int st_get_key(st_table *tab, st_data_t key, st_data_t *result) { st_index_t bin; st_hash_t hash = do_hash(key, tab); rb_p(key); .... }
51. make: *** [encdb.h] Error 1 make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs.... ../ruby/tool/transform_mjit_header.rb:5: [BUG] Segmentation fault at 0x0000000000000093 ruby 2.7.0dev (2019-09-03T19:17:53Z implement-ary-minmax ebebc4b80d) [x86_64-darwin18] -- Crash Report log information -------------------------------------------- See Crash Report log file under the one of following: * ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports * /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports for more details. Don't forget to include the above Crash Report log file in bug reports.
53. hash = {} hash[:key] = “value" hash[:key] # "value"
54. class Hash def initialize @bins = Array.new(7) { [] } end private attr_reader :bins end Separate Chaining
55. class Hash def initialize @bins = Array.new(7) { [] } end private attr_reader :bins end Separate Chaining
56. def bin(key) bins[index(key)] end def index(key) key.hash % bins.length end Separate Chaining
57. def find(key) bin(key).find do |entry| entry.key == key end end Separate Chaining
58. def []=(key, value) if find(key) find(key).value = value else bin(key) << Entry.new(key, value) end end class Entry < Struct.new(:key, :value) end Separate Chaining
59. Cache Locality
60. If a particular storage location is referenced […], then it is likely that nearby memory locations will be referenced in the near future. Wikipedia
61. [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9].each do |i| puts i end
62. class Hash def initialize @bins = Array.new(7) { [] } end private attr_reader :bins end Separate Chaining
63. def bin(key) index = index(key) entry = bins[index] while entry != nil && entry.key != key index += 1 entry = bins[index] end index end Open Addressing
64. def []=(key, value) if find(key) find(key).value = value else bins[bin(key)] = Entry.new(key, value) end end Open Addressing
66. Refactoring
67. The Pragmatic Programmer “Different languages solve the same problems in different ways”
68. Release Early, Release Often
69. def []=(key, value) if find(key) find(key).value = value else bins[bin(key)] = Entry.new(key, value) end end Open Addressing
70. def []=(key, value) if find(key) find(key).value = value else index = bin(key) bins[index] = key bins[index + 1] = value end end Open Addressing
73. 2 months
74. +682 LOC - 426 LOC
77. Start Small
78. Ask for Help
79. MRI Rubinius / Opal JRuby
80. Community
81. Broaden your Horizon
82. Thank You!
 
 @bruckmayer
 bruckmayer.net