Rusted Ruby
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This document discusses using the Rust programming language to build Ruby extensions more safely and efficiently. It introduces Rust, highlights issues with C extensions in Ruby like memory safety bugs, and presents Helix as a tool that uses Rust macros and scaffolding to generate Ruby gems from Rust crates more easily. An example is shown building a Pathname extension in Rust using Helix to avoid boilerplate code. The document encourages profiling Ruby code to identify methods that could benefit from a Rust implementation and emphasizes that Rust is accessible for extension work.
Rusted Ruby
- 1. RUSTED RUBY Ian Pointer (@carsondial) July 11th 2017
- 2. WHAT'S RUST? "Rust is a systems programming language that runs blazingly fast, prevents segfaults, and guarantees thread safety." Developed by Mozilla as alternative to C++ for future browser cores
- 3. WHAT'S WRONG WITH C? Writing good, portable C code is hard. Lack of modern standard library (that is also good & portable) So many ways to leave potential attack vectors in your code
- 4. WHY ANOTHER LANGUAGE?? Rust offers memory safety without GC Zero-cost abstractions - use all your fancy modern constructs! Taking the scariness out of systems programming!
- 5. AND MORE! cargo - packages ("crates") built from lessons of gems and npm Taking the safety off with unsafe Friendly community!
- 6. OUR FIRST RUST PROGRAM fn main() { let hello = "hello world"; println!("{:?}", hello) }
- 7. THE COMPILER WILL SEE YOU NOW fn change(some_string: String) -> String { String::from("hello, world") } fn main() { let s = String::from("hello"); let t = change(s); println!("{:?}", s); println!("{:?}", t) }
- 8. TAKEAWAYS Immutability by default There is a learning curve!
- 9. EXTENSIONS IN RUBY Used fairly o en in the Ruby world e.g. psych, mysql2, ruby-pg, nokogiri Almost certainly written in C
- 10. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
- 11. SO, RUST, THEN… Rust loves working with C/C++-based programs rust-bindgen produces Rust bindings from C/C++ Give it a .h file and watch it go!
- 12. BOY, THAT'S A LOT OF BOILERPLATE Gaze and despair!
- 13. ENTER HELIX Created by Godfrey Chan and Yehuda Katz Rust macros and scaffolding Takes care of all that boilerplate so you don't have to! Generates Rust crates that are also Ruby gems
- 14. LET'S BUILD AN EXTENSION! Pathname.absolute? Perhaps used more than you'd think (e.g. in Sprockets)
- 15. EXTENSIONS! Add gem 'helix-rails' & bundle install $ rails generate helix:crate helix_example
- 16. DEMO Example Helix Rails app
- 17. CAVEATS Getting access to self can be a hassle You can (and may need to) write more Rust supporting code Lots of magic going on!
- 18. THINGS (HOPEFULLY!) TO TAKE AWAY Rust is not scary! (mostly) Writing Rust extensions in Helix is easy! You don't need to rewrite everything in Rust Profile your code (e.g. with stackprof) Use the samples to identify methods that might gain from Rust
- 19. LINKS (friendly!) Rust The Rust Book Helix Example Helix Rails app faster_path Rust Reddit Triangle Rustaceans