From: Austin Ziegler Date: 2006-07-16T15:49:52+09:00 Subject: Re: How to speed up ruby and make it as fast as possible On 7/14/06, Jamal Mazrui wrote: > Certainly, Ruby performance is not always a problem. It may not even be > a problem in most situations. The issue arises enough on the list, > however, that, combined with personal experience, I am convinced it is a > significant problem. I think Ruby has few problems compared to other > languages, but this is probably its biggest one. Quantifying it more > than that is difficult, and should not be necessary for it to be > acknowledged as a valid concern. Performance concerns must *always* be quantified to be addressed. If you ask whether Ruby is slower than other languages, the answer must always be "at doing what"? It's that simple. Now, certainly, a well-tuned C program will (almost always) outperform a well-tuned Ruby program. But the C program will typically be harder to maintain. Since you've admitted that you haven't studied CS, you may have missed the mantra: beware premature optimisation. If you try to do something that you think will be faster without qualification and quantification of the performance metrics, you *will* *fail*. > Since the message that began this thread asked how to speed up Ruby > programs, it was obviously a problem for that author. Also, if it was > not a problem, why would speed improvement be a major goal of YARV/Ruby > 2? Was it? The OP never responded to "what are you trying to do" but instead had vague statements. > Not everyone is in a position to contribute directly to the improvement > of the Ruby language/VM. They still have a stake in the community, > however, and contribute in other ways. Those who are in a position to > improve the language will probably produce more valued results if > informed about our needs as developers. Evidently, increased speed is > not important to everyone, but expressing an interest in it should be > o.k., too. No one ever said otherwise. To argue such is to argue against a strawman. Increased speed is desired, certainly, but to me it is not the paramount thing. -austin BTW, stop top-posting. -- Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com * http://www.halostatue.ca/ * austin@halostatue.ca * http://www.halostatue.ca/feed/ * austin@zieglers.ca