From: Rob Biedenharn <Rob@...>
Date: 2009-11-26T01:23:49+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby internals & other questions

On Nov 25, 2009, at 11:01 AM, Ralph Shnelvar wrote:

> Is there a document or website that describes how Ruby works?

Yes, plenty.  You could start with ruby-lang.org or ask Google for  
JRuby, Rubinius, MacRuby, Maglev, or IronRuby and seek out the source  
code yourself.

>
> For instance ...
>
>
>
> y=0
> 1_000_000.times {|x| y+=x}
>
>
>
> (1) Does the block get compiled a million times?
Well, "compiled" makes the answer tricky, but the answer is basically  
"no." It gets executed a million times, but the compilation or AST  
production will only happen once (ignoring what JRuby's JIT might do).

>
> (2) What's the best Ruby way to do a sum from 1 to 1_000_000
Use a formula and don't actually do a "sum". (Which is true in any  
language)

>
> (3) Is there a difference in speed between IRB.exe and ruby.exe in
> executing the above code?
Probably not significant.

>
> (4) In IRB, whats the best way to time the code, above?
Benchmark it. (part of Ruby's standard library)


-Rob

Rob Biedenharn		http://agileconsultingllc.com
Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com