From: snacktime <snacktime@...>
Date: 2007-07-18T04:45:10+09:00
Subject: memcache C extension

I've decided I want to become more proficient in C, so the project is
chose is a ruby memcache C extension.  I found the following site with
a hash algorithm that seems to be an improvement on the default on,
can anyone think of a reason why not to use this?

http://www.last.fm/user/RJ/journal/2007/04/10/392555/

Also, since the extension isn't going to be thread safe (I'd have to
create a new native thread for each instance of the class I think if I
wanted to do that),  I was thinking about the best way to structure it
would be to use global variables for the C struct's that can only be
created once.    Then in the initialize function I can make sure to
only call the C function mc_new() once.

For example:

struct memcache *mc = NULL;

static VALUE class_initialize(VALUE self) {
  if (mc == NULL)
    rb_raise();
  mc = mc_new();
  return self;
}

Also, I have a particular need for caching database queries, where
buffer the returned rows and then send the whole thing to memcache.
Would it be more efficient to implement a string buffer in C rather
then use an array or concating strings in ruby?  I'm thinking about
adding this as an additional feature, where you create a buffer, fill
it up, then when you want to do a memcache add/set, you tell it to
add/set the contents of the buffer.


Thoughts/feedback appreciated.

Chris