ruby-core

Issue #16487 has been updated by shevegen (Robert A. Heiler).


I wanted to add just a short comment - while byroot is quite possibly correct in regards to most users
using pre-packaged binaries (probably), there are also folks (like me, and others) who compile ruby
from source. These could benefit from significant speed improvement, e. g. via a configure switch
for building (such as --enable-simd and/or --enable-simd-optimizations and/or --optimizations=LIST).

So perhaps the primary issue is about code maintainability/complexity as such. If only we could write
ruby in ... ruby, then ugly #ifdef macros may not have to be used. :)

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Misc #16487: Potential for SIMD usage in ruby-core
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16487#change-83723

* Author: byroot (Jean Boussier)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: 
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### Context

There are several ruby core methods that could be optimized with the use of SIMD instructions.

I experimented a bit on `coderange_scan` https://github.com/Shopify/ruby/pull/2, and Pavel Rosickexperimented on `String#strip` https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/2815.

### Problem

The downside of SIMD instructions is that they are not universally available.
So it means maintaining several versions of the same code, and switching them either statically or dynamically.

And since most Ruby users use precompiled binaries from repositories and such, it would need to be dynamic if we want most users to benefit from it.

So it's not exactly "free speed", as it means a complexified codebase.

### Question

So the question is to know wether ruby-core is open to patches using SIMD instructions ? And if so under which conditions.

cc @shyouhei





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