This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by Ryan Davis. Original Post: An Introduction to Ruby2c - Automatic Translation of Ruby Code to C Feed Title: Polishing Ruby Feed URL: http://blog.zenspider.com/index.rdf Feed Description: Musings on Ruby and the Ruby Community... Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by Ryan Davis Latest Posts From Polishing Ruby

An Introduction to Ruby2c

Automatic Translation of Ruby Code to C

The Problem

• Simply put, writing ruby internals in C requires a mental context switch every time you go from ruby to C and back.
• C sucks.
• This makes the internals harder to understand.
• Which makes it harder to recruit otherwise good coders to work on ruby internals.
• Which slows down ruby’s development.

Our Proposal

• Implement the whole thing in ruby, and translate to C.
• No more context switching.
• Able to test changes live in the system.
• More understandable internals.
• More accessible to others.
• Must be in a subset of ruby that is easily translatable to C.

Current Status

  def hello(n)
    1.upto(n) do
      puts "hello world"
    end
  end

  void
  hello(long n) {
  long temp_var1;
  temp_var1 = 1;
  while (temp_var1 <= n) {
  puts("hello world");
  temp_var1 = temp_var1 + 1;
  }
  }

An Extra Goodie

  class MyTest
    def factorial(n)
      f = 1
      n.downto(2) { |x| f *= x }
      return f
    end
  
    inline(:Ruby) do |builder|
      builder.optimize :factorial
    end
  end

Want to Help?

• Know what you are getting into... read the propaganda.
• Respond on my blog, send me email, talk to me on IRC, or contact Eric Hodel.
• A ruby2c subset spec is coming soon.
• Lots to write, and much of it should be fun!