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Blocks are one of the most expressive parts of the Ruby syntax. Many Ruby methods take a block. When a method is given different blocks, there is a crucial optimization necessary to unlock the best performance. This optimization dates back to the early days of research on dynamic languages, yet it seems only a single Ruby implementation currently uses it. This optimization is called splitting and what it does is using different copies of a method and specialize them to the block given at different call sites. This enables compiling the method and the block together for the best performance.
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In this talk at RubyConf 2022, Benoit Daloze presents 'Splitting: the Crucial Optimization for Ruby Blocks', focusing on a performance optimization technique known as splitting that is vital for enhancing Ruby's execution. **Key Points Discussed:** - **Introduction to Speaker and Context:** Benoit Daloze introduces himself, highlighting his experience with Ruby and his role in developing TruffleRuby, a high-performance Ruby implementation that emphasizes JIT compilation. - **Understanding Splitting:** Splitting is a technique where methods are customized into different versions based on their call context, maximizing performance by optimizing the execution flow for blocks. - **Historical Background:** The concept of splitting originates from the Self programming language and is linked to several foundational optimizations in dynamic languages dating back to research conducted in the 1980s. - **Concrete Example:** Daloze uses the *sum_to* method, which calculates the sum of numbers up to a certain value, to illustrate how splitting can optimize method execution in Ruby by creating specialized versions of methods based on the calling context. - **Optimizations Through JIT Compilation:** Through dynamic method lookup and inline caches, Ruby can enhance performance by efficiently managing method calls. - **Benchmarking Results:** Daloze reports that TruffleRuby outperformed CRuby 3.1 significantly across various benchmarks, with some operations running up to 7.7 times faster, particularly in Rails applications where TruffleRuby demonstrates considerable advantages. - **Impact of Splitting:** While splitting enhances performance, it does increase memory usage due to method copies. However, this trade-off is generally manageable within dynamic language implementations. **Conclusions:** The optimization of splitting provides significant benefits for executing Ruby blocks, improving performance and memory management while facilitating the functionality vital for dynamic languages. Daloze encourages further exploration of such optimizations in Ruby's continuing evolution.
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