[ruby-core:107598] [Ruby master Feature#18498] Introduce a public WeakKeysMap that compares by equality

Issue #18498 has been updated by Dan0042 (Daniel DeLorme).


byroot (Jean Boussier) wrote in #note-8:
> Then yes. But it's rarely convenient.

Can you elaborate? Because the DeduplicationSet example has `@set[object] = true`, which is exactly a non-GC-able value.

And the METADATA example is not so convincing since it makes more sense to have metadata per object (identity); I can't imagine a use case where you'd want to share metadata for objects that are eql.



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Feature #18498: Introduce a public WeakKeysMap that compares by equality
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/18498#change-96509

* Author: byroot (Jean Boussier)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
----------------------------------------
This is a clean take on #16038 

### Spec

#### Weak keys only

After a chat with @eregon we believe that what would make the most sense and would be most useful would be
a "WeakKeysMap". Meaning **the keys would be weak references, but the values would be strong references**.
This behavior is also consistent with the terminology in other popular languages such as Javascript and Java were `WeakMap` only have weak keys.

By default **it would use equality semantic, just like a regular `Hash`**. Having an option to compare by indentity instead
could be useful, but not strictly required.

#### Immediate objects support

Many WeakMap implementation in other languages don't accept "immediate" objects (or their equivalent) in the weak slots.
This is because since they are never collected, the weak reference will never possibly expire.

`ObjectSpace::WeakMap` currently accept them, but since both keys and values are weak references, there is legitimate use.

However in a `WeakKeysMap`, using an immediate object as key should likely raise a `TypeError`.

What is less clear is wether `BIGNUM` (allocated `Integer`) and dynamic symbols (allocated `Symbol`) should be accepted.

I believe they shouldn't for consistency, so:

  - No immediate objects
  - No `Integer`
  - No `Symbol`

#### `member` method to lookup an existing key

For some use case, notably deduplication sets, a `member` method that maps `st_get_key` would be useful.

```ruby
def member(key) -> existing key or nil
```

Not sure if `member` is the best possible name, but `#key` is already used for looking up a key by value.

That same method could be useful on `Hash` and `Set` as well, but that would be a distinct feature request.

#### Naming

Possible names:

  - `::WeakMap`
  - `::WeakKeysMap`
  - `::WeakRef::Map`
  - `::WeakRef::WeakMap`
  - `::WeakRef::WeakKeysMap`
  - `::WeakRef::WeakHash`
  - `::WeakRef::WeakKeysHash`

My personal, ligthly held, preference goes toward `::WeakRef::WeakKeysMap`.

### Use cases


#### WeakSet

A `WeakKeysMap` would be a good enough primitive to implement a `WeakSet` in pure Ruby code, just like `Set` is
implemented with a `Hash`.

`WeakSet` are useful for use cases such as avoiding cycles in an object graph without holding strong references.

#### Deduplication sets

Assuming `WeakMap` have the `#member` method.

A small variation on the "deduplicating constructors" use case, better suited for smaller but numerous objects.
The difference here is that we first build the object and then lookup for a pre-existing one. This is the
strategy used to [deduplicate Active Record schema metadata](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/3be590edbedab8ddcacdf72790d50c3cf9354434/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/deduplicable.rb#L5).


```ruby
class DeduplicationSet
  def initialize
    @set = WeakKeysMap.new
  end

  def dedup(object)
    if existing_object = @set.member(object)
      existing_object
    else
      @set[object] = true
      object
    end
  end
end
```

#### Third party object extension

When you need to record some associated data on third party objects for which you don't control the lifetime.
A WeakMap can be used:

```ruby
METADATA = WeakKeysMap.new
def do_something(third_party_object)
  metadata = (METADATA[third_party_object] ||= Metadata.new)
  metadata.foo = "bar"
end
```




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