[ruby-core:105764] [Ruby master Feature#18035] Introduce general model/semantic for immutable by default.

Issue #18035 has been updated by ioquatix (Samuel Williams).


I tried a couple of times but I could not figure out how to allocate more flags within `RBasic` and `enum` in C99 has problems with more than 32-bit constants on some platforms.

So, I'd like to share some ideas.

Can we split flags into two parts:

```c
struct RBasic {
  union {
    VALUE flags;
    struct {
      uint32_t object_flags; // well defined object flags for object state.
      uint32_t internal_flags; // internal flags for specific object implementation (currently "user" flags).
    };
  }
};
```

I don't know if this can work but maybe it's one idea to make the usage of flags more explicit. I suggest we move "user flags" to 2nd 32-bit "internal flags". We shouldn't bother exposing any constants for this, it's reserved depending on `T_...` type.

@nobu do you think this is something worth exploring? cc @shyouhei do yo have any ideas about what we can do to make this better?

----------------------------------------
Feature #18035: Introduce general model/semantic for immutable by default.
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/18035#change-94278

* Author: ioquatix (Samuel Williams)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
----------------------------------------
It would be good to establish some rules around mutability, immutability, frozen, and deep frozen in Ruby.

I see time and time again, incorrect assumptions about how this works in production code. Constants that aren't really constant, people using `#freeze` incorrectly, etc.

I don't have any particular preference but:

- We should establish consistent patterns where possible, e.g.
  - Objects created by `new` are mutable.
  - Objects created by literal are immutable.

We have problems with how `freeze` works on composite data types, e.g. `Hash#freeze` does not impact children keys/values, same for Array. Do we need to introduce `freeze(true)` or `#deep_freeze` or some other method?

Because of this, frozen does not necessarily correspond to immutable. This is an issue which causes real world problems.

I also propose to codify this where possible, in terms of "this class of object is immutable" should be enforced by the language/runtime, e.g.


```ruby
module Immutable
  def new(...)
    super.freeze
  end
end

class MyImmutableObject
  extend Immutable

  def initialize(x)
    @x = x
  end
  
  def freeze
    return self if frozen?
    
    @x.freeze
    
    super
  end
end

o = MyImmutableObject.new([1, 2, 3])
puts o.frozen?
```

Finally, this area has an impact to thread and fiber safe programming, so it is becoming more relevant and I believe that the current approach which is rather adhoc is insufficient.

I know that it's non-trivial to retrofit existing code, but maybe it can be done via magic comment, etc, which we already did for frozen string literals.



-- 
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/

Unsubscribe: <mailto:[e-mail]?subject=unsubscribe>
<http://lists.ruby-lang.org/cgi-bin/mailman/options/ruby-core>