From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2007-12-18T14:55:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Best compiled language for extending Ruby

Sharkie Landshark wrote:
> I want to write my core logics in a compiled language for 1) performance
> and 2) protecting my source code -- in case I will be selling my product
> to a customer.
> 
> What would be the most natural-supported-easy-fast language to do this
> in, given the many choices of language bridges?
> 
> I am particularly interested in,
> 
> 1) C
> 2) Objective C
> 3) Ocaml
> 4) Lisp (SBCL)
> 5) Scheme
> 
> Does anyone have experience and would like to share?
> 
> I will be coding in OS X and deploying in FreeBSD mostly.

The only one of these for which a well-documented interface exists is C. 
C++ can be made to work, but Ruby itself is written in C.

I'm sure it's possible to write extensions in the other four languages 
and build a C interface, so if your algorithms are more naturally 
expressed in one of them, by all means use one of them. By the way, 
which Scheme(s) were you considering? Quite a few of them compile to C 
now, so that might make a Ruby interface easier.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Shark