From: james.d.masters@...
Date: 2007-06-22T03:00:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby extensions question..

On Jun 21, 10:22 am, Aaron Smith <beingthexempl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> So I'm getting slightly confused with writing ruby extensions and what
> is best for performance.
>
> I'm working on writing an extension for Ruby, but almost everything i'm
> doing at the C level is with rb_* functions using the Ruby C API. I
> understand how it works but isn't that just as slow as using Ruby? Or
> no?
>
> thanks
>
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

The performance improvement is not found in the Ruby interface to C
but rather in what is going on in the C code itself.

Example:

I write C code that does something computationally intensive - say it
takes about 1 hour to run.  If I were to write a Ruby equivalent (only
in Ruby) then let's say that it takes 2 hours.  But if I extend that C
code using the Ruby C API then my performance would be 1 hour plus
interface (rb_*) overhead - maybe on the order of a few seconds or
perhaps minutes.