I wrote an article on using RubyInline for optimization where I take png.rb, sprinkle in a little profiling and a little C and make it go over 100 times faster.

I wrote an article on using RubyInline for optimization where I take png.rb, sprinkle in a little profiling and a little C and make it go over 100 times faster.

I'm pleased to announce to new libraries written by members of the Seattle Ruby Brigade, mem_inspect and png! mem_inspect mem_inspect is ObjectSpace.each_object on crack. mem_inspect gives you the contents of each slot in Ruby's heap. mem_inspect also includes viewers that let you visualize the contents of Ruby's heap. To install: sudo gem...

Ya you are correct, it won't let you change the safe level. I wonder how hard it would be to bypass it though using something like rubyinline? —Re: $SAFE =4 safe enough? via snacktime require 'rubygems' require 'inline' class DeSafe inline do |builder| builder.prefix "RUBY_EXTERN int ruby_safe_level;" builder.c <<-EOC static void...

Here’s a picture of my Ruby process’ heap slots: BLACKunknown (char*, VALUE *, struct st_table, etc.) GRAYfree memory REDnodes (code) GREENRuby objects WHITEMiscellaneous interpreter objects If you look really closely in the original you can see a white pixel that is probably a struct SCOPE.

I've hacked into gc.c and added an alternative to ObjectSpace.each_object that gives you the contents of every heap slot in Ruby's memory space. $ ./ruby -I ~/Work/p4/zss/src/RubyInline/dev/ ~/heapwalk.rb [id, size, inspect] 0x001aa004 0x00000000 :__free 0x001aa018 0x00000000 :__free 0x001aa02c 0x00000000 :__free 0x001aa040 0x00000000 :__free...

Hi. I started porting the ZFS file system to the FreeBSD operating system. There is a lot to do, but I’m making good progress, I think. [...] You can find all those on FreeBSD perforce server: http://perforce.freebsd.org/depotTreeBrowser.cgi?FSPC=//depot/user/pjd/zfs& amp;HIDEDEL=NO Ok, so where am I? I ported the userland bits (libzfs,...

Now that ruby 1.8.5 has been released (Changelog) and ri includes a bunch more documentation and integrates with gems you just might be suffering from ri overload. $ ri --system -l | wc -l 8882 $ ri -l | wc -l 11918 $ echo 11918 - 8882 | bc 3036 I have 31 extra gems installed, including Rails, which gives me a ton more at-my-fingertips...

One of my long-running problems with Rails (and Ruby in general) is that it’s difficult to debug memory leaks. I’ve had a number of cases where I’ve stuck something into a long-lived array or hash and discovered much later that my Ruby process was eating over 100 MB of RAM. While ps makes it easy to see when Ruby’s using...

A cheat sheet that shows the assertions in Test::Unit, the ones added by Rails, and the ones further added by Test::Rails (part of the ZenTest gem). Ruby, Rails, Test::Rails Cheat Sheet —Ruby, Rails, Test::Rails Cheat Sheet via Nuby on Rails

In memcached Basics for Rails Rob Sanheim asked: [W]hy make the cached model a class to extend instead of a module? Whether or not a model is cached should be an implementation detail, and shouldn’t define the hierarchy for a class. I know I would rather not use the power of (single!) inheritance just to cache something, when a mix-in...

When we first got our new Dell PowerEdge development box the Broadcom NetXtreme II would occasionally report Error mapping mbuf into TX chain followed by the NIC no longer responding to ethernet. If you’ve got a new Dell, here’s how to update if_bce on FreeBSD 6 to fix the error.

When we first got our new Dell PowerEdge development box the Broadcom NetXtreme II would occasionally report Error mapping mbuf into TX chain followed by the NIC no longer responding to ethernet. If you’ve got a new Dell, here’s how to update if_bce on FreeBSD 6 to fix the error.

ar_mailer allows you to queue ActionMailer emails in the database that will be sent with a separate process. ar_mailer gives drastic speed-ups when you need to send many emails. To install ar_mailer: sudo gem install ar_mailer. You can also download ar_mailer from Rubyforge. For instructions on how to convert from the regular delivery methods...

While at FOSCON 2006 I watched Lucas Carlson's presentation on Rinda and DRb, but he barely scratched the surface of Rinda's capabilities with his prime finding implementation. Rinda::TupleSpace is more powerful than just a name service for DRb. Since a TupleSpace has synchronized access to all its items, you can use a TupleSpace to coordinate...