Auto merge of - zaeleus:trpl-riol, r=pnkfelix

r? @steveklabnik
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bors 2015-05-24 15:52:17 +00:00
commit 820b1d8393
2 changed files with 30 additions and 30 deletions

@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
* [Learn Rust](learn-rust.md)
* [Guessing Game](guessing-game.md)
* [Dining Philosophers](dining-philosophers.md)
* [Rust inside other languages](rust-inside-other-languages.md)
* [Rust Inside Other Languages](rust-inside-other-languages.md)
* [Effective Rust](effective-rust.md)
* [The Stack and the Heap](the-stack-and-the-heap.md)
* [Testing](testing.md)

@ -6,24 +6,24 @@ Rusts greatest strengths: a lack of a substantial runtime.
As organizations grow, they increasingly rely on a multitude of programming
languages. Different programming languages have different strengths and
weaknesses, and a polyglot stack lets you use a particular language where
its strengths make sense, and use a different language where its weak.
its strengths make sense and a different one where its weak.
A very common area where many programming languages are weak is in runtime
performance of programs. Often, using a language that is slower, but offers
greater programmer productivity is a worthwhile trade-off. To help mitigate
this, they provide a way to write some of your system in C, and then call
the C code as though it were written in the higher-level language. This is
greater programmer productivity, is a worthwhile trade-off. To help mitigate
this, they provide a way to write some of your system in C and then call
that C code as though it were written in the higher-level language. This is
called a foreign function interface, often shortened to FFI.
Rust has support for FFI in both directions: it can call into C code easily,
but crucially, it can also be called _into_ as easily as C. Combined with
Rusts lack of a garbage collector and low runtime requirements, this makes
Rust a great candidate to embed inside of other languages when you need
some extra oomph.
that extra oomph.
There is a whole [chapter devoted to FFI][ffi] and its specifics elsewhere in
the book, but in this chapter, well examine this particular use-case of FFI,
with three examples, in Ruby, Python, and JavaScript.
with examples in Ruby, Python, and JavaScript.
[ffi]: ffi.html
@ -40,18 +40,18 @@ optimizations can stack allocate particular numbers, but rather than relying
on an optimizer to do its job, we may want to ensure that were always using
primitive number types rather than some sort of object type.
Second, many languages have a global interpreter lock, which limits
Second, many languages have a global interpreter lock (GIL), which limits
concurrency in many situations. This is done in the name of safety, which is
a positive effect, but it limits the amount of work that can be done at the
same time, which is a big negative.
To emphasize these two aspects, were going to create a little project that
uses these two aspects heavily. Since the focus of the example is the embedding
of Rust into the languages, rather than the problem itself, well just use a
uses these two aspects heavily. Since the focus of the example is to embed
Rust into other languages, rather than the problem itself, well just use a
toy example:
> Start ten threads. Inside each thread, count from one to five million. After
> All ten threads are finished, print out done!.
> all ten threads are finished, print out done!.
I chose five million based on my particular computer. Heres an example of this
code in Ruby:
@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ threads = []
end
end
threads.each {|t| t.join }
threads.each { |t| t.join }
puts "done!"
```
@ -82,12 +82,12 @@ sort of process monitoring tool, like `top`, I can see that it only uses one
core on my machine. Thats the GIL kicking in.
While its true that this is a synthetic program, one can imagine many problems
that are similar to this in the real world. For our purposes, spinning up some
that are similar to this in the real world. For our purposes, spinning up a few
busy threads represents some sort of parallel, expensive computation.
# A Rust library
Lets re-write this problem in Rust. First, lets make a new project with
Lets rewrite this problem in Rust. First, lets make a new project with
Cargo:
```bash
@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ src/lib.rs:3 fn process() {
src/lib.rs:4 let handles: Vec<_> = (0..10).map(|_| {
src/lib.rs:5 thread::spawn(|| {
src/lib.rs:6 let mut x = 0;
src/lib.rs:7 for _ in (0..5_000_001) {
src/lib.rs:7 for _ in (0..5_000_000) {
src/lib.rs:8 x += 1
...
src/lib.rs:6:17: 6:22 warning: variable `x` is assigned to, but never used, #[warn(unused_variables)] on by default
@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ Finally, we join on each thread.
Right now, however, this is a Rust library, and it doesnt expose anything
thats callable from C. If we tried to hook this up to another language right
now, it wouldnt work. We only need to make two small changes to fix this,
though. The first is modify the beginning of our code:
though. The first is to modify the beginning of our code:
```rust,ignore
#[no_mangle]
@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ pub extern fn process() {
We have to add a new attribute, `no_mangle`. When you create a Rust library, it
changes the name of the function in the compiled output. The reasons for this
are outside the scope of this tutorial, but in order for other languages to
know how to call the function, we need to not do that. This attribute turns
know how to call the function, we cant do that. This attribute turns
that behavior off.
The other change is the `pub extern`. The `pub` means that this function should
@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ crate-type = ["dylib"]
```
This tells Rust that we want to compile our library into a standard dynamic
library. By default, Rust compiles into an rlib, a Rust-specific format.
library. By default, Rust compiles an rlib, a Rust-specific format.
Lets build the project now:
@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ Now that weve got our Rust library built, lets use it from our Ruby.
# Ruby
Open up a `embed.rb` file inside of our project, and do this:
Open up an `embed.rb` file inside of our project, and do this:
```ruby
require 'ffi'
@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ end
Hello.process
puts "done!"
puts 'done!'
```
Before we can run this, we need to install the `ffi` gem:
@ -241,7 +241,7 @@ done!
$
```
Whoah, that was fast! On my system, this took `0.086` seconds, rather than
Whoa, that was fast! On my system, this took `0.086` seconds, rather than
the two seconds the pure Ruby version took. Lets break down this Ruby
code:
@ -258,11 +258,11 @@ module Hello
ffi_lib 'target/release/libembed.so'
```
The `ffi` gems authors recommend using a module to scope the functions
well import from the shared library. Inside, we `extend` the necessary
`FFI::Library` module, and then call `ffi_lib` to load up our shared
object library. We just pass it the path that our library is stored,
which as we saw before, is `target/release/libembed.so`.
The `Hello` module is used to attach the native functions from the shared
library. Inside, we `extend` the necessary `FFI::Library` module and then call
`ffi_lib` to load up our shared object library. We just pass it the path that
our library is stored, which, as we saw before, is
`target/release/libembed.so`.
```ruby
attach_function :process, [], :void
@ -280,10 +280,10 @@ Hello.process
This is the actual call into Rust. The combination of our `module`
and the call to `attach_function` sets this all up. It looks like
a Ruby function, but is actually Rust!
a Ruby function but is actually Rust!
```ruby
puts "done!"
puts 'done!'
```
Finally, as per our projects requirements, we print out `done!`.
@ -329,7 +329,7 @@ After that installs, we can use it:
var ffi = require('ffi');
var lib = ffi.Library('target/release/libembed', {
'process': [ 'void', [] ]
'process': ['void', []]
});
lib.process();
@ -340,7 +340,7 @@ console.log("done!");
It looks more like the Ruby example than the Python example. We use
the `ffi` module to get access to `ffi.Library()`, which loads up
our shared object. We need to annotate the return type and argument
types of the function, which are 'void' for return, and an empty
types of the function, which are `void` for return and an empty
array to signify no arguments. From there, we just call it and
print the result.