A recapping post
This commit is contained in:
parent
1b560ed57d
commit
80195e4e06
@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
|
||||
# [RubyX webpages](http://ruby-x.org)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
RubyX's webpage are a rails 5.2 application run at Hetzner.
|
||||
RubyX's webpage is a rails 5.2 application run at Heroku [http://ruby-x.org](http://ruby-x.org).
|
||||
|
||||
If you don't know rails, most of the docs are quite close to text (called haml),
|
||||
found in the app/views/pages directory.
|
||||
|
||||
###Contribute
|
||||
### Contribute
|
||||
|
||||
We are _very_ open to improvement so if you see anything that is wrong or misleading, please create an issue.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Also if you feel there is information missing, don't hesitate to mention it.
|
||||
|
||||
Even better, clone and send a pull request. Typos and small things don't even need a branch.
|
||||
|
||||
###Local viewing
|
||||
### Local viewing
|
||||
|
||||
After having cloned the repository go to the folder and
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
118
app/views/posts/2021/_11-18-lessons-learned.haml
Normal file
118
app/views/posts/2021/_11-18-lessons-learned.haml
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
|
||||
%p
|
||||
Sooooo, we bought an old
|
||||
=ext_link "hospital." , "https://www.hubfeenix.fi/"
|
||||
Word of advice: don't buy an old hospital if
|
||||
you can avoid it (obviously we tried and failed). It is understandably taking all
|
||||
our energy to get the old into the shape of the new (ie a non-profit art center).
|
||||
|
||||
%h2 Gather round kids, grandpa's talking
|
||||
%p
|
||||
So i am in a pensive mood, definitely reviewing. Maybe it's even the end?
|
||||
|
||||
%h3 Constant Types
|
||||
%p
|
||||
The one thing to come out of this effort is the importance of constant types.
|
||||
%p
|
||||
The relation of fourth to third level languages has eluded me for many years,
|
||||
at least in the very succinct form i can express it now. Vague notions that
|
||||
fourth level languages need to be coded in third level languages (wrong!) or
|
||||
need to be compiled down to third level like c++ was into c (wrong too) where
|
||||
floating in my head.
|
||||
%p
|
||||
Quite early on i hit upon the importance of Types as a way to describe memory.
|
||||
And the importance of those types being constant or immutable (obvious! but
|
||||
then everything is in hindsight), because otherwise you wouldn't know here is
|
||||
what. Third level languages have evolved the model of types naturally, as all
|
||||
information is available / gathered before the program starts.
|
||||
%p
|
||||
A fourth level language has no types (in the sense above), it has classes.
|
||||
Classes (or prototypes, 6 vs half dozen) can change over time. But if one
|
||||
assigns a type to a class, the type instance changes when class attributes are
|
||||
changed.
|
||||
%p
|
||||
This essential difference between changing classes and constant types is the
|
||||
difference between fourth and third level language.
|
||||
|
||||
%h3 The need for speed
|
||||
%p
|
||||
Speed was brushed aside for the longest time by dynamic language designers.
|
||||
Luckily things are looking up, more on that below. Interpretation was
|
||||
the easy way, quick to start but slow to get right. We are now at a point
|
||||
where we have to retrofit speed, never an easy tasks. Whereas RubyX shows a
|
||||
compiling approach would not have been difficult, not too difficult for people
|
||||
in the 60's i mean. But as always, the problem was in the head.
|
||||
|
||||
%p
|
||||
Since C is pretty much as simple as can be, it will be difficult to beat in
|
||||
terms of speed before a whole lot of work has enabled cross function
|
||||
compilation and optimization, but i still think it is possible to make code
|
||||
run faster than c, because of just that. Until then we (rather others), will
|
||||
have to build just in time compilers for the instructions that VM's like YARV
|
||||
use.
|
||||
%p
|
||||
This process, i am relieved to hear, has started. Not only with the slightly
|
||||
hacky v8. But properly, by
|
||||
= ext_link "Maxime." , "https://pointersgonewild.com/about/"
|
||||
While working for Spotify, she has started a JIT project based on the idea
|
||||
of collecting and using
|
||||
= ext_link "immutable type data," , "https://pointersgonewild.com/2021/06/02/yjit-building-a-new-jit-compiler-inside-cruby/"
|
||||
which she calls BBV. This is very similar to what i was doing for functions,
|
||||
and she had the good sense to narrow the approach down to Basic Blocks (the BB
|
||||
in BBV). The V is for versioning and means producing new types and not changing
|
||||
old, ie having immutable types.
|
||||
|
||||
%h2 Too late or too early
|
||||
%p
|
||||
Maxime says the Self people were onto this same idea too, but even from just
|
||||
her phd i feel quite vindicated. While in so many ways i think that this work
|
||||
has been started way to late, the choices i made (coding in ruby..) probably mean
|
||||
%em my
|
||||
work is actually ahead of it's time ie too early. But off course hopelessly
|
||||
incomplete.
|
||||
%p
|
||||
Maxime says in one video that they will probably have to reimplement
|
||||
parts of ruby in ruby, just so that their jit can perform cross function
|
||||
compilations. Because they too have noticed very early on that with ruby's
|
||||
small functions, cross function optimisation is going to be essential (more
|
||||
vindication).
|
||||
%p
|
||||
Imho no decision is the best decision, and since i don't have time to do any
|
||||
work on ruby-x, i won't :-) Having learned about Maxime and her teams effort,
|
||||
seriously funded, well accepted, i will sit back and watch the show.
|
||||
And assume (like in a Disney movie) that the happy end is on it's way.
|
||||
|
||||
%h2 The icing: Quajects unravelled
|
||||
%p
|
||||
Just because i got some 404's from the
|
||||
=link_to "synthesis thesis" , "/synthesis/index"
|
||||
(which i consequently cleaned up and linked in), i touched on the
|
||||
= link_to "Quajects" , "/synthesis/ch4.html"
|
||||
again and finally
|
||||
%em got it.
|
||||
|
||||
%p
|
||||
Quajects are "true" objects in the sense that they combine code and data in
|
||||
their memory representation. "Normal" objects, implemented by any oo language,
|
||||
are really only data. Their code is pointed to, not really part of the object,
|
||||
more of the class. Off course you could argue that a class is an object, but
|
||||
while that is true, it does not argue the point. As the code for the class is
|
||||
again in it's class, and not in the object.
|
||||
%p
|
||||
Another way to look at Quajects is that they are a partial evaluation of an
|
||||
original function (that is not present in synthesis). Ie if a normal OS gives
|
||||
you a file descriptor and a read method that you then pass the descriptor to,
|
||||
Synthesis gives you a quaject that reads only that one particular file.
|
||||
Thus partially evaluating a general
|
||||
read with respect to the given file descriptor.
|
||||
%p
|
||||
But while i say "true" object, there is the control flow aspect of Quajects
|
||||
that has not made it into any higher level programming language. The closest
|
||||
we got was the goto (shudder), but the quaject way is more like setjump (more
|
||||
shudders, as both are not named/abstracted). I had a rambling
|
||||
about that some while back, basically saying that we would have to model not
|
||||
just functions (that always return to the same point), but also callouts (ie calling
|
||||
code that is not intended to come back) and callins (places where other code
|
||||
can land without expecting to be returned to). This is pie in the sky off course,
|
||||
but it is where
|
||||
= ext_link "Alexia Massalin" , "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexia_Massalin"
|
||||
was at, already in the 80's. Hat off.
|
||||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue
Block a user