ruby-x.github.io/app/views/pages/rubyx/memory.html.haml

= render "pages/rubyx/menu"

%h1=title "Memory layout and management"

%p
  Memory management must be one of the main horrors of computing.
  That’s why garbage collected languages like ruby are so great.
  Even simple malloc implementations tend to be quite complicated.
  Unnecessary so, if one used object oriented principles of data hiding.

%h3 Objects

%p
  As has been mentioned, in a true OO system, object tagging is not really an option.
  Tagging being the technique of adding the lowest bit as marker to pointers and thus
  having to shift ints, loosing a bit, and having some check before any pointer access.
  %br
  Mri does this for Integers but not other value types.
  We accept this and work with it and just say “off course” , but it’s not modelled well.

%p
  In a real OO system,
  %b everything really is an object.
  Strings are objects, floats, symbols, arrays, and yes,
  %b Integers are normal Objects
%p
  The difference with Integers is that they are
  %b immutable.
  As are Symbols in Ruby 2.x and Strings in Ruby 3.x and Javascript. Sensibly so, and
  in general the property of immutable should be modelled explicitly.

%h3 Object Memory Layout

%p
  When we say everything in an Object, what does that mean in practise.
  Well, in short it means every Object has a Type, and the type is the
  %b first word
  in the memory layout.
%p
  A Type stores the instance variable names, the methods, and refers to a class,
  which in turn defines behaviour in a ruby.
%p
  As a further stipulation, making our life easier, we define objects to be of fixed
  size (according to type) and a multiple of a cache line long.
  Objects are managed in Pages of same sized objects and the ObjectSpace, see below.
%p

%h4 Continuations
%p
  But (i hear), ruby is dynamic, we must be able to add variables and methods to an object
  at any time. So the type, or length, can’t be fixed. Ok, we can change the Type every
  time, but when any empty slots have been used up, what then.
%p
  Then we use Continuations, so instead of adding a new variable to the end of the object,
  we use a new object and store it in the original object. Thus extending the object.
  A linked list basically.
%p
  Continuations are pretty normal objects and it is just up to the object to manage the
  redirection. Off course this may splatter objects a little, but in running application
  this does not really happen much. Most instance variables are added quite soon after
  startup, just as functions are usually parsed in the beginning.
%p
  We can avoid the added redirection of Continuations by clever code analysis and
  over dimensioning. While this, and the whole concept of fixed size objects, may seem
  wasteful at first sight, it is
  %em much
  more efficient than using a hash (as in mri, that not only stores all those names
  over and over, but also has buckets, list functionality and just about uses a cache
  line for a single variable)

%h3 Data

%p
  So if we’re not tagging and we only have
  %em Objects
  where is the data. Where is that int, that char, the byte-buffer.
%p
  Just to make that totally clear: The OO level has no access, no idea of data.
%p
  Data does off course exist, but it is hidden, beyond the instance variables,
  inaccessible to normal ruby code.
%p
  The way this works, is that all access to data, or one should really say all
  functionality that is needed to perform on data, is implemented in the lower
  levels, mostly the Risc layer.
%p
  In the Builtin module, we can define methods in purely Risc terms. The Risc
  layer does have access to the memory, and can thus do things with it. Let's
  look at the simple example of Integer addition. The method is defined in
  =ext_link "Builtin," , "https://github.com/ruby-x/rubyx/blob/master/lib/risc/builtin/integer.rb#L82"
  on the Integer type. The method requires one argument and checks that that too
  is an Integer. Then it loads the data from both objects, performs the operation,
  "allocates" a new Integer object and saves the machine word into it.
%p
  We can also define SlotMachine Instruction to manipulate data, but as work is done in
  methods, the Builtin approach has been sufficient up to now.
%p
  Again one may think this is wasteful, the simplest of Integer operation thus taking
  10-20 cpu instructions instead of one. But not only are we speed-wise up against
  interpretation (ie not one), but number crunching is not really what ruby is made
  for. And if it ever is, there is always the possibility to optimise those Builtin methods.

%h3 Pages, Space and object allocation
%p
  A
  %em Page
  manages a fixed size number of objects of the same size. They do not need to be of
  same Type, just same memory length.
%p
  The Space, manages Pages, and is ultimately responsible for "allocating" new memory.
%p
  Objects are
  %b not
  allocated in the same way as mri, but rather recycled. Mri used C and specifically
  malloc to do memory allocation and freeing.
%p
  RubyX only every allocates Pages, or many pages (depending on object size), and
  does so by getting it directly from the operating system (system call).
%p
  Objects are only every recycled. Pages keep free lists of the objects (of the size
  they manage) that are not used, and hand them out upon request. When the garbage
  collector deems an object to be "freed" it is put back on the free-list of the
  appropriate Page. This is done by changing the type of the object.

%h3 Status
%p
  Not all of this has been implemented yet, only the
  %em static
  side of this. Pages and Space are still barely existent in terms of functionality
  and objects are only statically allocated at the moment.
%p
  But fixed size objects (and off course the type system) are done. When creating
  a binary, only fixes sized objects are written. The next step will be to sort them
  according to size and arrange them in Pages.
%p
  Integers and their basic operations are done, and strings have basic read/write
  access, but no allocation yet.