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RubyConf AU 2013: http://www.rubyconf.org.au Ruby has become a global phenomenon, and more people use it every day. But too often, Ruby is maligned for poor performance, poor scalability, and inability to efficiently parallelize. It's time we changed those impressions. This talk will cover strategies for optimizing Ruby code, from using different Ruby implementations with better performance characteristics to generating code and avoiding excessive object churn. We'll see how one implementation, JRuby, optimizes different Ruby language constructs and how knowing a bit about your Ruby impl of choice will help you write better code. And we'll explore the future of Ruby for high performance computing and solutions to get us there. If you don't know how to write faster, better Ruby code by the end of this talk, I'll let you buy me a beer and we'll keep talking.
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In the talk titled "High Performance Ruby" presented by Charles Nutter at RubyConf AU 2013, the speaker addresses common misconceptions regarding Ruby's performance and outlines strategies to optimize Ruby code for efficiency. The presentation emphasizes that while Ruby may face criticism for being slow, it is essential to evaluate whether it is 'fast enough' for practical purposes. The key points discussed include: - **Performance Optimization Approaches**: Ruby can be optimized for overall execution time, memory usage, developer time, and even developer happiness. It's crucial to measure what aspects need improvement through benchmarking, while being wary of the limitations of such benchmarks. - **Understanding JRuby**: Nutter, a significant contributor to JRuby, explains how this particular Ruby implementation leverages the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to achieve better performance. He highlights the optimizations present in JRuby and encourages developers to consider the underlying Ruby implementation to enhance their coding practices. - **The Golden Rule of Optimization**: Particularly in Ruby, doing less work is crucial. This involves avoiding repetitive tasks such as redundant object allocations and method calls. Efficient coding techniques include caching method lookups, inlining methods, and careful memory management. - **Common Pitfalls**: The presentation identifies pitfalls that hinder Ruby's performance such as excessive use of `eval`, creating singletons, dynamic method definitions, and altering class hierarchies at runtime. These practices complicate performance optimizations due to the dynamic nature of Ruby. - **Memory Management**: Nutter emphasizes the significance of minimizing object creation to prevent memory bloat, suggesting the use of constants and frozen literals for better memory utilization. He also advises against inefficient data handling that can lead to increased garbage collection overhead. - **Leveraging JVM Features**: Since JRuby runs on the JVM, it benefits from its optimizing capabilities. Nutter discusses how JRuby has improved its performance significantly over the years owing to advancements in JVM technology, indicating a potential 300% increase in performance simply by utilizing the JVM's evolution. In conclusion, the talk reinforces the idea that Ruby developers have the power to enhance their application's performance significantly by understanding the language's underlying architecture, applying effective coding strategies, and avoiding common performance traps. By embracing these optimization techniques, Ruby can shed its reputation for being slow and evolve into a tool that meets high-performance requirements.
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