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