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Sam Ruby

@intertwingly.net

1.1K followers 49 following 183 posts

Author: Agile Web Development with Rails 8; Retired ; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Ruby

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 19h

100% written by a human. Porting and on-shotting are anecdotes. Yes, Rust is faster than CRails. Duh. But is that really the interesting question? What happens when your needs change and you are faced with a requirement than you never anticipated before? intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

intertwingly.net

Rust is the answer to the wrong question

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 30/09/2026

Nokogiri, Loofah and Crass now compile to native code with Spinel, Matz's Ruby-to-C compiler. Same requires, same APIs, no Rails. An HTML sanitizer becomes a 2–3 MB binary that runs in 5–9 ms, byte-identical to the gems on their own test inputs. intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

intertwingly.net

Nokogiri, Loofah and Crass, Compiled

Reposted by Sam Ruby

Eduard G.Castelló @elpatroned.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Today I contributed to #roundhouse and #spinel, unthinkable for me a few years ago. Tooling from @matz.bsky.social and @intertwingly.net makes it approachable: compile my Rails API, hit an issue, report it, repeat. Now I see low-level details I couldn't (or wouldn't) before🙃

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 29/09/2026

This could be important: github.com/rubys/roundh...

Make `roundhouse check` fast on large apps by tobi · Pull Request #171 · rubys/roundhouse

roundhouse check on a very large app (Shopify core: 96k .rb files, 140 components) was dominated by two quadratic costs in constant resolution. This PR measures, then removes them. Commits ROUNDHO...

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 28/09/2026

"As if", a new post covering Aaron's closing keynote, DHH's new rust port of campfire, performance, and maintainability. Yes, it is "AI slop", but I think the questions this piece poses are worth exploring. intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 27/09/2026

Partly in the Right - intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

intertwingly.net

Partly in the Right

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 25/09/2026

intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

intertwingly.net

Pencils Down, Notation Up

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 24/09/2026

Excellent! The goal is that you shouldn't have to make changes. Try the Dockerfile at rubys.github.io/roundhouse/a... and/or rubys.github.io/roundhouse/b... . Let me know (issues, pull requests, discussions, social media, whatever) where the gaps are.

rubys.github.io

Reposted by Sam Ruby

Eduard G.Castelló @elpatroned.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I made a tiny Rails API compile into a native Linux binary using Roundhouse + Spinel. This repo shows the full path: Rails source → compatibility check → generated Spinel target →native binary → Docker deployment. Includes a runnable binary and setup guide. github.com/eddygarcas/s...

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 22/09/2026

You were right, and it's 5 of 7 here. Campfire's TruffleRuby lane loads: declared — puma, bcrypt, nio4r, json, openssl not — sqlite3, nokogiri sqlite3 is the hot one (a few hundred rows/request). --cexts-lock=false: 432 → 1,078 req/s at 5 threads

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 22/09/2026

Correction published: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09... ; now updating the test harness so that future runs of the benchmark will show better results.

intertwingly.net

Campfire, Three Rubies

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 22/09/2026

@headius.bsky.social @eregon.me intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09... - let me know what conclusions I may have gotten wrong or what areas I should explore next.

intertwingly.net

Campfire, Three Rubies

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 21/09/2026

Let's keep the dialog going - "interesting" and "surprising" usually leads to discoveries, ones that undoubtedly will benefit both sets of users, even if the Venn diagram of those users don't meaningfully overlap at the moment.

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 20/09/2026

A PR against Campfire, merged by @rosa.codes, and Campfire on Spinel now passes 300 out of 300 model and controller tests: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

intertwingly.net

Campfire, One Short

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 19/09/2026

TruffleRuby specializes the interpreter to the program at runtime; Roundhouse specializes Rails to the app ahead of time. I'm now, for the first time, starting to measure the impact of each separately and together: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

intertwingly.net

Two JITs, Opposite Signs

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 19/09/2026

intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09... — tell me directly what I got wrong or should have done differently; this is your area of expertise, not mine. I use Claude openly for this work, and I'm enjoying watching it rise to the challenges I give it.

intertwingly.net

Two JITs, Opposite Signs

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 19/09/2026

The run is being made now, it takes a few hours total given all of the targets. And I'm working on a blog post with the findings. For this small benchmark, roundhouse+YJIT is competitive with TruffleRuby, and the benefits stack, though not as much as they do with JRuby.

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 19/09/2026

rubys.github.io/roundhouse/b... contains CRuby instructions if you want a preview

rubys.github.io

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 19/09/2026

Two bonuses: TruffleRuby's parallel threads exposed a GVL-masked race in our runtime (13% 500s until fixed), and JRuby's earlier 20s-warmup JSON numbers were 500s from jruby#9531 — fixed on 10.1.1.0. Linux-box numbers + write-up soon; happy to send the tarball if you want to profile the HTML path.

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 19/09/2026

Tried both modes (40.0.0, M4 Mac, same app + db). Stock Rails: CRuby+YJIT 1.4k req/s → TruffleRuby 7.7k, JVM ≈ native (JRuby 10.1.1: 3.1k). Our emitted Ruby: 11.7k → 28.6k native / 24.8k JVM. 512 MB heap: fine for the emit, OOM for Rails (1 GB ok). Warmup: ~60s emit, ~120s Rails on JVM.

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 18/09/2026

I'll add it to the list, no guarantees when I'll get to it. My experience with JRuby suggests the benefits should compound. One key difference between TruffleRuby and RoundHouse is how they view their targets. intertwingly.net/blog/2026/07... demonstrates TypeScript - everything runs in your browser

intertwingly.net

There Is No Server

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 18/09/2026

Roundhouse Released: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

Matz on stage: 5x the throughput; 366 MB against 4.6 GB, referring to Campfire → Roundhouse → Spinel

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 18/09/2026

Here's some benchmarks: rubys.github.io/roundhouse/b... and rubys.github.io/roundhouse/b...; let me know if I should add TruffleRuby to the list (and which one: native or JVM). Or if there are other benchmarks I should consider.

rubys.github.io

Roundhouse bench — bench

Reposted by Sam Ruby

Benoit Daloze @eregon.me · 17/09/2026

So Matz is saying you can make Campfire (a Rails app) 5 times faster and use a twelvth of the memory by using github.com/rubys/roundh... + github.com/matz/spinel

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 18/09/2026

intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09... - browser based IDE/playground, LSP, and MCP for Spinel

intertwingly.net

Spinel at Your Fingertips

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 14/09/2026

Hyprland as the multiplexer: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09... #omarchy #herdr

intertwingly.net

Terminals That Outlive the Laptop

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 11/09/2026

Spinel demo in a tweet: curl -sL rubys.github.io/roundhouse/c... | tar xz cd campfire-docker docker build -t campfire . docker run --rm -p 3000:3000 -v campfire-data:/app/storage campfire intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09... intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 09/09/2026

Two days ago the compiled Campfire was 55% faster than Rails. Today it's 4x. One process against their eight. The change: a nested view appends into the caller's buffer instead of returning a string — 61% less allocation per request. intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

intertwingly.net

Campfire, Buffered

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 07/09/2026

One Spinel process now beats Rails' eight: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

intertwingly.net

Campfire, Cached

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 05/09/2026

Developing in public, Campfire on Spinel measurements: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09... TL;DR: some early wins (examples: cold start, memory, sockets), and some known work to be done, then profiling.

intertwingly.net

Campfire, Measured

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 03/09/2026

Good catch! Should be fixed now. Thanks!

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 03/09/2026

Video of my talk from RubyConf; preview of my talk in Deccan Queen on Rails. www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Sa... intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09... intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

RubyConf 2026 - There Is No Server by Sam Ruby

YouTube video by Ruby Central

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 01/09/2026

MVP version of Campfire on Spinel is now something you can run yourself: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/09...

intertwingly.net

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 28/08/2026

As of today, Campfire (unmodified) boots on Spinel. This is both an important milestone and the first step of many. intertwingly.net/blog/2026/08...

intertwingly.net

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 29/07/2026

@push.cx where is a good place to discuss this?

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 29/07/2026

@eightbitraptor.bsky.social is there a good place to discuss this?

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 29/07/2026

Next target: Lobste.rs on Spinel: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/07...

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 22/07/2026

Rails on Roda: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/07...

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 20/07/2026

Roda on Spinel: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/07...

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 19/07/2026

@ufuk.dev What we discussed at RubyConf is now implemented and in the test suite: unannotated scopes and class methods infer Relation[T], and scopes resolve on relation receivers — Story.recent.for_user(1) just types. github.com/rubys/roundh... and github.com/rubys/roundh...

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 16/07/2026

My RubyConf slides: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/07... Demos, speaker notes, and links to blog posts that contain more depth. All running in your browser.

intertwingly.net

There Is No Server

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 11/07/2026

github.com/oripekelman/... might be just what you are looking for

GitHub - OriPekelman/tep: A Sinatra-flavoured web framework that compiles to a native binary via Spinel

A Sinatra-flavoured web framework that compiles to a native binary via Spinel - OriPekelman/tep

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 11/07/2026

Lobste.rs as a benchmark: initial progress report: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/07...

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 10/07/2026

> My goal with JRuby has always been to give Rubyists more tools and more opportunities. By combining JRuby with the power and ecosystem of the JVM, we’ve brought Ruby and Rails to places it never could have gone before. Hold my beer. :-)

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 07/07/2026

Mastodon's streaming server exists because MRI can't hold ten thousand idle sockets. Rewrote it in a Ruby that compiles: 300 connections, 16MB vs Node's 202MB. It's the first rung of a bigger ladder — Mastodon on Spinel, as a supported configuration. intertwingly.net/blog/2026/07...

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 06/07/2026

Status update: ingesting Mastodon. intertwingly.net/blog/2026/07...

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 25/06/2026

Live Types for Rails: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/06...

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 20/06/2026

Roundhouse demos: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/06...

Type comment.commenter + 1 and a red marker appears under it, live, because adding an integer to a string is an error and the compiler knows it.

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Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 19/06/2026

Spinel on Rails: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/06...

Sam Ruby @intertwingly.net · 11/06/2026

The Ruby JRuby Was Built to Run: intertwingly.net/blog/2026/06...

intertwingly.net

The Ruby JRuby Was Built to Run