Embedding Ruby in a C++ application

ruby-talk
1

I understand from the documentation that when I embed Ruby in a native application that the Ruby interpreter is not thread safe - i.e. that I can't concurrently evaluate different ruby expressions in separate native threads - if my application is multi-threaded that I must somehow enforce mutual exclusion myself. This seems pretty restrictive - especially with today's multi-processor servers and hyper-threading.

Are there any plans to make a future version of Ruby thread safe? Can anyone comment as to how difficult it would likely prove to modify Ruby 1.8 to establish a bespoke version which is thread safe? Is there a good reason for the decision to use global variables in the implementation of the ruby interpreter which would make such modifications undesirable to the wider Ruby community?

2

Hi Steve,

Are there any plans to make a future version of Ruby thread safe?

Ruby 2.0 will support native threads.

Can anyone comment as to how difficult it would likely prove to modify Ruby
1.8 to establish a bespoke version which is thread safe?

Check out Sydney:
http://rubyforge.org/projects/sydney/
http://blog.fallingsnow.net

Wayne Vucenic
No Bugs Software
Ruby and C++ Agile Contract Programming in Silicon Valley

3

Wayne Vucenic wrote:

Are there any plans to make a future version of Ruby thread safe?
    

Ruby 2.0 will support native threads.
  

Thanks, that is fantastic news...

My only remaining question is what time-scale are we talking about before Ruby 2.0 might be available. I understand the "when it is ready" perspective... but realistically will I be counting the weeks, months, years or decades before 2.0 becomes a stable release?

Steve

4

No idea, but it will happen sooner if more serious C people contribute to YARV:
http://www.atdot.net/yarv/
..which has its own mailing list:
http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/yarv-devel

YARV is the VM/thread implementation that will be present in Ruby 2.0.

--Wilson.

ยทยทยท

On 10/20/05, Steve [RubyTalk] <steve_rubytalk@shic.co.uk> wrote:

Wayne Vucenic wrote:
>> Are there any plans to make a future version of Ruby thread safe?
>>
> Ruby 2.0 will support native threads.
>
Thanks, that is fantastic news...

My only remaining question is what time-scale are we talking about
before Ruby 2.0 might be available. I understand the "when it is ready"
perspective... but realistically will I be counting the weeks, months,
years or decades before 2.0 becomes a stable release?