[#365153] synchronize a "mocked" clock in a distributed system — Chuck Remes <cremes.devlist@...>

I've been banging on a problem for a few days now and don't feel any closer to solving it. I'm hoping some of the big brains on the ruby ML can shed some light. Following are a few paragraphs with a brief system overview before I state the problem. I apologize in advance for this question being only tangentially related to Ruby the language. :)

13 messages 2010/07/01
[#365164] Re: [Q] synchronize a "mocked" clock in a distributed system — Tony Arcieri <tony.arcieri@...> 2010/07/01

On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 3:10 PM, Chuck Remes <cremes.devlist@mac.com> wrote:

[#365214] RubyGoLightly Progress Report — Eleanor McHugh <eleanor@...>

I seem to have been missing in action for the best part of six months so I thought it was about time I put together a progress report and pimped the vapourware in hopes of finding some likeminded miscreants/dilettantes to turn it into something more substantial.

14 messages 2010/07/02

[#365320] Why am I not getting the expected output? — Abder-rahman Ali <abder.rahman.ali@...>

I have the following code: http://pastie.org/1032525, but always getting

11 messages 2010/07/06

[#365351] best way to make .rb into an executable for linux? — David Ainley <wrinkliez@...>

I have a pretty basic .rb script that I would like to turn into an

11 messages 2010/07/06

[#365374] Hashes don't allow preceding commas by design? — Iain Barnett <iainspeed@...>

This is the output from irb that shows ruby 1.9.1 doesn't like hash entries to be preceded by a comma, only ended by one:

12 messages 2010/07/07

[#365413] What is meant by those lines of code in this script? — Abder-rahman Ali <abder.rahman.ali@...>

I came across the following script from "Why's poignant guide to Ruby".

9 messages 2010/07/07

[#365504] FIRST PROGRAMMING PROBLEM Array — Francisco Martinez <calabazag@...>

Hi...I'm trying to solve a very simple exercise but this is one of my

12 messages 2010/07/09

[#365513] what about allowing to specify, which end belongs to which start? — Jan Lelis <prog@...>

Hi Ruby mailing list,

24 messages 2010/07/09
[#365541] Re: what about allowing to specify, which end belongs to which start? — Caleb Clausen <vikkous@...> 2010/07/10

On 7/9/10, Jan Lelis <prog@janlelis.de> wrote:

[#365548] Re: what about allowing to specify, which end belongs to which start? — Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...> 2010/07/11

On 10.07.2010 17:54, Caleb Clausen wrote:

[#365551] Re: what about allowing to specify, which end belongs to which start? — Caleb Clausen <vikkous@...> 2010/07/11

On 7/11/10, Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> wrote:

[#365555] Re: what about allowing to specify, which end belongs to which start? — Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...> 2010/07/11

On 11.07.2010 13:32, Caleb Clausen wrote:

[#365574] Re: what about allowing to specify, which end belongs to which start? — Caleb Clausen <vikkous@...> 2010/07/11

On 7/11/10, Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> wrote:

[#365570] How to pass a hash as a param to a method called through eval? — Alex Stahl <astahl@...5.com>

Hi Folks - I've got a data-driven app I'm building, and I'd like to be

14 messages 2010/07/11

[#365615] Try Ruby is back online. — andrew mcelroy <sophrinix@...>

Greetings,

10 messages 2010/07/12

[#365721] Ruby garabage collector — Abder-Rahman Ali <abder.rahman.ali@...>

In the "Why's poignant guide to Ruby" book, it states the following:

22 messages 2010/07/13

[#365752] What does this do? — Abder-Rahman Ali <abder.rahman.ali@...>

I have this portion of code from "Why's poignant guide to Ruby" book.

12 messages 2010/07/13

[#365828] click a javascript dialog window in Firefox — Mario Ruiz <tcblues@...>

Hi,

9 messages 2010/07/14

[#365844] Return nothing when looking outside the bounds of 2D array? — Shawn W_ <shawnw@...>

I have a 2D Array. I have written a method

22 messages 2010/07/14
[#365850] Re: Return nothing when looking outside the bounds of 2D array? — w_a_x_man <w_a_x_man@...> 2010/07/14

On Jul 14, 3:56m, Shawn W_ <sha...@internode.on.net> wrote:

[#365853] Re: Return nothing when looking outside the bounds of 2D array? — Shawn W_ <shawnw@...> 2010/07/15

Thx. Don't quite understand that code. I tried plugging in some nils but

[#365869] Re: Return nothing when looking outside the bounds of 2D array? — Shawn W_ <shawnw@...> 2010/07/15

A better way to describe it.

[#365871] Re: Return nothing when looking outside the bounds of 2D array? — Dave Howell <groups.2009a@...> 2010/07/15

I was going to suggest using the 'case' statement instead of all those elsifs, but then I realized there was an even better way.

[#365938] Re: Return nothing when looking outside the bounds of 2D array? — Shawn W_ <shawnw@...> 2010/07/16

Okay, just found out that...

[#365944] Re: Return nothing when looking outside the bounds of 2D array? — Martin DeMello <martindemello@...> 2010/07/16

On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 11:11 AM, Shawn W_ <shawnw@internode.on.net> wrote:

[#365847] Ruby best practice for "always on" app/service? — yermej <yermej@...>

I'm building an app that will essentially be a web service client. It

10 messages 2010/07/14

[#365988] client-side Ruby on iPad/iPhone? — Jeff Pritchard <jp@...>

I've seen jRuby and IronRuby, and really want to use them since i really

12 messages 2010/07/17

[#366015] ruby abstraction — "James O'Brien" <jeob32@...>

Hi,

17 messages 2010/07/18

[#366053] LoadError: no such file to load -- tk — Rich Leblanc <rl001@...>

I'm trying to install Ruby on a 64 bit Windows 7 machine following this

46 messages 2010/07/19
[#366063] Re: LoadError: no such file to load -- tk — Roger Pack <rogerpack2005@...> 2010/07/19

[#366082] Re: LoadError: no such file to load -- tk — Rich Leblanc <rl001@...> 2010/07/19

Roger Pack wrote:

[#366085] Re: LoadError: no such file to load -- tk — Eric Christopherson <echristopherson@...> 2010/07/19

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 3:26 PM, Rich Leblanc <rl001@pacbell.net> wrote:

[#366086] Re: LoadError: no such file to load -- tk — Rich Leblanc <rl001@...> 2010/07/20

Eric Christopherson wrote:

[#366135] Re: LoadError: no such file to load -- tk — Roger Pack <rogerpack2005@...> 2010/07/20

[#366140] Re: LoadError: no such file to load -- tk — Rich Leblanc <rl001@...> 2010/07/20

Roger Pack wrote:

[#366147] Re: LoadError: no such file to load -- tk — Roger Pack <rogerpack2005@...> 2010/07/20

Rich Leblanc wrote:

[#366153] Re: LoadError: no such file to load -- tk — Rich Leblanc <rl001@...> 2010/07/20

Roger Pack wrote:

[#366179] Re: LoadError: no such file to load -- tk — Rich Leblanc <rl001@...> 2010/07/21

Rich Leblanc wrote:

[#366115] Count occurences of vars in array — Vitaliy Yanchuk <fuksito@...>

Hello, everyone.

18 messages 2010/07/20
[#366116] Re: Count occurences of vars in array — Jean-Julien Fleck <jeanjulien.fleck@...> 2010/07/20

Hello,

[#366120] Re: Count occurences of vars in array — Vitaliy Yanchuk <fuksito@...> 2010/07/20

Jean-Julien Fleck, thanks.

[#366152] Can't get ruby 1.9 to work after install on OSX — Musdev Musdev <devrubygem@...>

Hello

12 messages 2010/07/20

[#366196] how to make "gem install rmagick" work? — Jian Lin <blueskybreeze@...>

I wanted to install rmagick on Win7 but it can't install:

10 messages 2010/07/21

[#366226] Text to Binary — Umm Whyshouldisay <kipthemudkip@...>

Hi! I'm new to the forums. I'm also a bit new to Ruby. I already know

13 messages 2010/07/21

[#366254] finding last line in a file — Ted Flethuseo <flethuseo@...>

Hi everyone,

15 messages 2010/07/22
[#366256] Re: finding last line in a file — Urabe Shyouhei <shyouhei@...> 2010/07/22

Take a look at the doc for File.readline.

[#366257] Re: finding last line in a file — Urabe Shyouhei <shyouhei@...> 2010/07/22

(2010/07/22 14:08), Urabe Shyouhei wrote:

[#366319] Typical Ruby (non-rails) project structure. — Carl Jenkins <carljenkins@...>

What is/are the best-practice(s) for a Ruby project structure?

18 messages 2010/07/22

[#366418] Ruby books designed especially for beginngers — Kaye Ng <sbstn26@...>

Hey experts, i need your advice.

12 messages 2010/07/24

[#366611] Which Ruby is in use? — Hassan Schroeder <hassan.schroeder@...>

Is there a way to tell from within a program which executable is being

23 messages 2010/07/27
[#366614] Re: Which Ruby is in use? — "Joseph E. Savard" <joseph.savard@...> 2010/07/27

[#366617] Re: Which Ruby is in use? — Hassan Schroeder <hassan.schroeder@...> 2010/07/27

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 2:20 PM, Joseph E. Savard

[#366620] Re: Which Ruby is in use? — Joel VanderWerf <joelvanderwerf@...> 2010/07/27

Hassan Schroeder wrote:

[#366622] Re: Which Ruby is in use? — Hassan Schroeder <hassan.schroeder@...> 2010/07/27

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 3:10 PM, Joel VanderWerf

[#366624] Re: Which Ruby is in use? — Joel VanderWerf <joelvanderwerf@...> 2010/07/27

Hassan Schroeder wrote:

[#366625] Re: Which Ruby is in use? — Hassan Schroeder <hassan.schroeder@...> 2010/07/27

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 3:52 PM, Joel VanderWerf

[#366626] Re: Which Ruby is in use? — Joel VanderWerf <joelvanderwerf@...> 2010/07/27

Hassan Schroeder wrote:

[#366629] tool to compare DB schema against DDL file — Fabian Marin <fmg134s@...>

First of all any feedback from you guys will be of tremendous help.

14 messages 2010/07/28

[#366727] my script just read one line? — Junhui Liao <junhui.liao@...>

Dear all,

19 messages 2010/07/29
[#366729] Re: my script just read one line? — Jes俍 Gabriel y Gal疣 <jgabrielygalan@...> 2010/07/29

On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 1:43 PM, Junhui Liao <junhui.liao@uclouvain.be> wrote:

[#366766] Re: my script just read one line? — Junhui Liao <junhui.liao@...> 2010/07/29

Dear Jes炭s Gabriel y Gal叩n and all,

[#366774] Re: my script just read one line? — Jes俍 Gabriel y Gal疣 <jgabrielygalan@...> 2010/07/30

On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 1:58 AM, Junhui Liao <junhui.liao@uclouvain.be> wrote:

[#366784] Re: my script just read one line? — Junhui Liao <junhui.liao@...> 2010/07/30

[#366786] Re: my script just read one line? — Jes俍 Gabriel y Gal疣 <jgabrielygalan@...> 2010/07/30

On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 2:18 PM, Junhui Liao <junhui.liao@uclouvain.be> wrote:

[#366792] Re: my script just read one line? — Junhui Liao <junhui.liao@...> 2010/07/30

Dear Jes炭s Gabriel y Gal叩n,

[#366755] .any?{} Behavior — John Sikora <john.sikora@...>

I find the following behavior interesting (so interesting that I

28 messages 2010/07/29
[#366797] Re: [].all?{} and [].any?{} Behavior — Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@...> 2010/07/30

On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 5:27 PM, John Sikora <john.sikora@xtera.com> wrote:

[#366809] Re: [].all?{} and [].any?{} Behavior — Josh Cheek <josh.cheek@...> 2010/07/30

On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 10:49 AM, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@gmail.com>wrote:

[#366837] Mocking a method with a block — Fernando Guillen <fguillen.mail@...>

Hi people,

12 messages 2010/07/31

Re: ruby abstraction

From: Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@...>
Date: 2010-07-19 17:32:57 UTC
List: ruby-talk #366076
On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 2:55 AM, Clifford Heath <no@spam.please.net> wrote:
> James O'Brien wrote:
>>
>> I have found the concept of an interface invaluable in my Java programming
>> and wondered if there were an equivalent concept in Ruby?
>> I'm open to the idea that interfaces might not be needed in Ruby
>
> Interfaces provide Java with dynamic method dispatch, without the
> cost(*) of having every individual method in the dispatch table as
> is the case with Ruby and other dynamic languages. In other words,
> Ruby has interfaces; every method is its own interface. If you want
> to group those methods logically, you are free to (as long as you
> don't use the same method name in two groups!).
>
> Unlike Java, Ruby also allows new methods to be added at runtime.
> That requires every method lookup to traverse the inheritance chain
> in a linear fashion, instead of one dynamic lookup per dispatch.
> Caching method lookups helps a bit, but the linear search is still
> the main reason that Ruby's method dispatch is slower than Java's.
>
> (*) It turns out that to search a method table is little to no more
> costly than to search an interface table, so Java gains nothing there.

Is the * the equivalent of Emily Litella's "Never Mind!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Litella

There's thirty or more years of experience in getting dynamic method
dispatch to run efficiently.  Techniques such as polymorphic inline
caching, dynamic (re)compilation and others. One of the pioneers of
this work was David Ungar who analyzed Smalltalk performance as his
PhD dissertation, then spearheaded Self which was a language which
turned the dynamic lookup knob up to 11 (it did away with the
distinction between methods and instance variables) which exacerbates
the problems of having to do continuous dynamic lookups and found
techniques to make the language performant.  Such techniques formed
the basis of the HotSpot JIT technology in Java.

There is a wealth of literature on efficient implementation of dynamic
languages, particularly in the proceedings of OOPSLA in the mid 1980s
forwards.

To date, the MRI implementations have used rather naive techniques.
JRuby does take advantage of JVM implementation techniques, albeit a
bit less directly than say MagLev which is built on a similarly
sophisticated VM which was engineered for Smalltalk rather than Ruby a
language whose underlying object model more closely maps to Ruby than
does Java.

Now, I'm far from an expert on JVM implementation, but the last time I
looked, it seemed that interfaces were really only used in method
dispatch as a way to provide the equivalent of what Ruby uses symbols
for.  In ruby the method invocations

a.foo
a.foo(1)
a.foo("abc")

All resolve to the same method, where in Java these would be different
overloaded methods based on different types and numbers of parameters
(different signatures).  So the combination of method name and
parameter type list needs to be mapped to a 'selector' of a method
defined in a particular (super)class or interface.  The java bytecodes
to call a method typically involve fetching a 'token' from a class or
interface (which is known because of the type of the variable
'receiving' the call, and then calling a dispatch function with the
receiver, the token, and the argument values.  This is very similar to
what happens in Ruby except that instead of a token based on the name
and parameter types, Ruby just uses the symbol form of the method
name.

What happens on the other side of the dispatch function is hidden, but
the effect is for the VM to find the right method implementation and
invoke it.

The traditional C++ implementation of virtual functions uses the
compiler's knowledge of the called object type and the class hierarchy
of that type to find a virtual function table and index that to find a
pointer to the method.  This turns out to be very fragile, and is why
large C++ programs have LOTS more make dependencies than does a
typical C program, meaning that small source code changes can require
MANY files to be recompiled to make sure everyone has the right
locations of VFTs and virtual function indexes.

If you're interested in this try googling for "fragile base class
problem." This issue be-deviled those who tried to use C++ to build
"framework-based" OS APIs during the days of C++ fever.

http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/2007/06/15/a-meeting-with-gill-bates *
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/2009/10/10/oh-the-irony

Another related bit of history is the war between different
semi-static/semi-dynamic "object models" like IBM's SOM vs.
Microsoft's COM *.  Although I was playing for the "IBM team" I never
thought much of either to be honest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_Object_Model
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Object_Model


This approach falls down completely when the type hierarchy can change
at run-time and I'm pretty sure that most JVMs do the actual method
lookup more dynamically and use caching to achieve performance.

* BTW, Tony Williams who is considered as the co-inventor of COM was
IIRC the guy presenting in this meeting, and if he wasn't the
presenter he was in the room.

-- 
Rick DeNatale

Blog: http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Github: http://github.com/rubyredrick
Twitter: @RickDeNatale
WWR: http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale

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