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Peter Zhu

@peterzhu.ca
464 followers 33 following 50 posts

Staff Developer at Shopify. Ruby core committer. Photography geek. Mastodon: @peterzhu2118@ruby.social Instagram: @peterzhu.photos

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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 18/09/2026
I will be speaking at the next TokyoDev meetup. Would love to see other Tokyo devs there! tokyodev.doorkeeper.jp/events/199447
tokyodev.doorkeeper.jp
TokyoDev Talks Vol. 14: Open Source Resilience / Zero Trust Network Access
Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:30 - 20:50 Note that attendance for this event is limited to software developers, those aspiring to become one, or working in an adjacent position (e.g. Product Managers, UI/UX Des...
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 02/09/2026
Ruby's GC and ZJIT got a new collab! We recently introduced inlining of the garbage collector's fastpath into ZJIT. Read more about it here: railsatscale.com/2026-09-01-z...
railsatscale.com
ZJIT 🤝 GC: Inlining GC Fastpath in ZJIT
Object allocations from the garbage collector are now inlined in ZJIT.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 13/08/2026
Excited to be speaking at @sfruby.com this year!
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 11/07/2026
Excited to be speaking at RubyConf in Vegas next week!
My talk titled "Building the Next-Generation Garbage Collector in Ruby" at RubyConf Las Vegas on Thursday, July 16 at 11:15AM.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 14/05/2026
カナダは69万円。日本より安い⁉️ www.henrys.com/sony-alpha-a...
henrys.com
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 30/04/2026
Excited to be speaking at RubyConf. See you in Vegas!
Banner of my RubyConf talk titled "Building the Next-Generation Garbage Collector in Ruby" on Thursday, July 16, 2026 at 11:15AM.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 24/04/2026
Honored to give my talk at #RubyKaigi this year! Slides are available here: blog.peterzhu.ca/assets/rubyk...
Me on stage at RubyKaigi giving talk titled “Building the Next-Generation Garbage Collector in Ruby”
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/04/2026
Arrived in Hakodate for #RubyKaigi
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 16/02/2026
“Your proposal for RubyKaigi 2026 has been accepted” See you in Hakodate!
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 29/12/2025
Ruby has a new moving GC. I just merged moving Immix in the MMTk Ruby binding. This is exciting as its the first GC that dynamically detects fragmentation in the heap and performs defragmentation. Performance isn't too great yet but I'm working on it! github.com/ruby/ruby/pu...
github.com
Implement moving Immix in MMTk by peterzhu2118 · Pull Request #15744 · ruby/ruby
This commit implements moving Immix in MMTk, which allows objects to move in the GC. The performance of this implementation is not yet amazing. It is very similar to non-moving Immix in many of the...
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 22/12/2025
I implemented Ruby's heap algorithm in MMTk in a day and 100 lines. Ruby's default GC is 10k+ lines. This doubles MMTk's performance from over 2x slower to almost on par. And I still haven't unlocked MMTk's true powers like generational GC or moving GC. github.com/ruby/mmtk/pu...
github.com
Implement Ruby heap by peterzhu2118 · Pull Request #54 · ruby/mmtk
This heap emulates the growth characteristics of the Ruby default GC's heap. By default, the heap grows by 40%, requires at least 20% empty after a GC, and allows at most 65% empty before it sh...
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Reposted by Peter Zhu
hsbt @hsbt.org · 20/12/2025
Finally, www.ruby-lang.org/en/ has a new design.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 11/11/2025
Congrats!
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 25/10/2025
I think one of the weaknesses of Ruby is the documentation. Just like how the Rails Foundation's job is to improve documentation and promote Rails, we need an organization to improve the documentation and guides in Ruby, and improve SEO and usability of docs.ruby-lang.org.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 22/10/2025
Yes, Shopify is definitely donating much more than $2,500/year. However, $2,500 is the minimum to be listed on the website, so it suggests that there are only two organizations providing above that amount.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
As I've stated in my blog post, governance isn't the issue here. It's the lack of companies that are willing to put engineers in OSS. When we know which companies these are, then maybe we can start discussing governance.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
This is what my blog post is about. It's so heavily Shopify employees because no companies (with the exception of a few Japanese ones) will invest engineers in Ruby. If it's not Shopify, then who?
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
The development is about as in the open as it can be, but that doesn't mean the tickets tell you exactly what to do. If you knew how ZJIT works, the tickets contain all the information needed. The source code is there and there are blog posts and design docs, just read it.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
I'm not sure I agree that BDFL is always bad. Imagine if we abolished BDFL and instead used a committee of Ruby core, then Shopify will have >50% of the votes. They can unilaterally accept or reject anything. Is that the optimal outcome?
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
Dev meeting agenda requires public proposal at least a few days in advance with a ticket for each item. This is public and open for feedback from anyone. bugs.ruby-lang.org/projects/rub... We make sure the whole process is as transparent as possible with discussions and decisions in the open.
bugs.ruby-lang.org
DevMeeting - Ruby - Ruby Issue Tracking System
Redmine
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
The major decisions for the language are made in the monthly developer meetings within the Ruby core team. While the meetings are not public, the meeting notes are: github.com/ruby/dev-mee....
github.com
GitHub - ruby/dev-meeting-log: Log archive for monthly Developers Meeting
Log archive for monthly Developers Meeting. Contribute to ruby/dev-meeting-log development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
Your disagreement seems to be with one specific organization. The community is large so let's not generalize it like that. There are so many things to be optimistic about in the Ruby ecosystem, from many YC startups using RoR, to new features in Ruby & Rails, to a vibrant community.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
I'm not asking for smaller shops to contribute, but the big players should do much more. I contribute 10-20 hours/week to Ruby in my own time and I do it because I love this language, I love this community, and I love solving real problems.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
Why do we need a Ruby foundation? As a member of the Ruby core team, we don't need red tape. Our decisions are made democratically in the core team. However, a BDFL with vision for the language is important coherency. Individual changes to the language could make sense, but not make sense in total.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
While DHH is the most vocal, I want to emphasize that Rails is so much more than DHH. The core team is driven by 12 amazing people, most of which I know personally and can vouch for. We should be optimistic that the future of Rails in the hands of these people. rubyonrails.org/community
rubyonrails.org
Ruby on Rails Community
Rails improves every year thanks to hundreds of contributors. Meet the Core, Committers, and Issues team and learn how you can also make Rails better.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
People come and go. It's always sad to see people go but also exciting to see new Rubyists. But for many that have left the community, it's because of new opportunities rather than a governance issue. After all, open source is about less governance, less red tape, and more freedoms.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/10/2025
Sure, maybe you don't use all of these things, and that's fine. But the performance and stability improvements in Ruby come for free for everyone that upgrades. These improvements help your Rails app run faster, save money, and deliver better UX for users of your app.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 19/10/2025
This isn't true generally. It might be semi-true for things actively being worked on (e.g. ZJIT, Modular GC) but that's because it's moving at a high velocity that's hard to coordinate with non-employees. However, projects that are more stable (e.g. VWA, Prism, YJIT) are very open to contributors.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 19/10/2025
I would like to see evidence of "sucking up money"? Sure, there could be more transparency. However, the management chain is fairly lean. You can see they hire 7 staff members (paid by RC) and 6 directors (not paid by RC). rubycentral.org/about/
rubycentral.org
About Us
Our Vision We are a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing the Ruby programming language and a welcoming and diverse worldwide Ruby community. We create spaces and events, onli...
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 19/10/2025
That's not true. In fact, RailsConf this year got far more sponsors than RC. There were 3 x $50k, 1 x $35k, 2 x $25k sponsors. railsconf.org/sponsors/
railsconf.org
Sponsors
RailsConf 2025 is the world’s largest gathering of Rails developers, brought together to further discussion and learning about building, managing, and testing Rails applications. With a specific focus...
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 19/10/2025
Also, should we think of confs as money makers or as an investment for the community? I think of them as the latter. Of course, it's important to be responsible with the money. Confs should be a place of discourse, learn new things, build connections, and get hyped. (2/2)
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 19/10/2025
From what I know, RC's confs have been roughly breaking even in the last year or two, so far from "spending money without any accountability." I would argue that the confs are essential to the Ruby ecosystem, as it (was) the only Rails conf in US and is still the only major Ruby conf in US. (1/2)
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 18/10/2025
I wrote about some of my thoughts on the lessons we can learn from the RubyGems situation and how we can move forward. blog.peterzhu.ca/open-source-...
blog.peterzhu.ca
Open Source is the Most Fragile and Most Resilient Ecosystem - Peter Zhu
Some of my thoughts on the lessons we can learn from the RubyGems situation and how we can move forward.
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Reposted by Peter Zhu
Jean Boussier @byroot.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
I tried to explain why I don't believe the recent accusations toward my former teammates, as well as how the Ruby and Rails Infra team at Shopify operates and why it can be trusted. byroot.github.io/opensource/r...
byroot.github.io
Dear Rubyists: Shopify Isn’t Your Enemy
I’ve been meaning to write a post about my perspective on Open Source and corporate entities. I already got the rough outline of it; however, I’m suffering from writer’s block, but more importantly, t...
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 22/09/2025
I’m excited to share that I’m starting as a Staff Developer at Figma!
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 21/09/2025
Still in the Ruby community! Will be upgraded to a user of Ruby at my job but I’ll still be working on Ruby in my spare time.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/09/2025
Friday was my last day of an incredible journey at Shopify. In the past 5 years, I had the privilege of working on some cutting edge projects to advance Ruby with some of the most talented and well-known developers. Shopify will always have a very special place in my heart.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 16/09/2025
Shopify sponsors and collaborates with academia to take Ruby to new heights. We're working with Australian National University to integrate Memory Management Toolkit into Ruby. Earlier this year, we published a paper about it. Today, we wrote a blog post: railsatscale.com/2025-09-16-r...
railsatscale.com
Reworking Memory Management in CRuby
Shopify sponsors and collaborates with academia to take Ruby to new heights. In this post, we give an overview of what we’ve built in collaboration with the Australian National University.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 15/09/2025
My #RailsWorld talk recording is up! youtu.be/9r0xmX0oK5Y?...
youtu.be
Peter Zhu - Ruby Stability at Scale
YouTube video by Ruby on Rails
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 06/09/2025
Honored to give a talk at #RailsWorld again, on the same stage 2 years later. The recording should be up in a few weeks but you can find the slides here in the meantime: blog.peterzhu.ca/assets/rails...
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 02/09/2025
Excited for my Rails World talk on Friday! #railsworld
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 17/06/2025
At the ISMM conference today we presented our paper about our contributions to Ruby’s garbage collector. This was the result of a multi-year collaboration between researchers at the Australian National University and Shopify. Read it here: blog.peterzhu.ca/assets/ismm_...
blog.peterzhu.ca
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 03/06/2025
I just published "Implementing Embedded TypedData Objects" about a feature @byroot.bsky.social and I worked on for Ruby 3.3. A bit late, but better than never. railsatscale.com/2025-06-03-i...
railsatscale.com
Implementing Embedded TypedData Objects
We implemented a new feature to TypedData objects in Ruby, called embedded TypedData objects. TypedData objects are used across a wide variety of Ruby types, such as Time, Enumerator, and Method. This...
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 27/05/2025
My RubyKaigi talk recording is up on YouTube! youtube.com/watch?v=04ax...
youtube.com
[EN] Modular Garbage Collectors in Ruby / Peter Zhu @peterzhu2118
YouTube video by RubyKaigi
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 20/05/2025
Excited to be giving a talk at Rails World this year! rubyonrails.org/world/2025/d...
rubyonrails.org
Rails World 2025 - Amsterdam, NL — Ruby Stability at Scale
A web-app framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 19/04/2025
If you missed it, my recent #rubykaigi talk “Modular Garbage Collectors in Ruby” covered: ⚙️ Features the current Ruby GC lacks 🔄 Implementation of the Modular GC feature in Ruby 3.4 🔨 What MMTk is and the integration with Modular GC The recording will be up in a few months!
Peter on stage at RubyKaigi
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 18/04/2025
Thanks for coming to my talk at @rubykaigi today. My slides are available at blog.peterzhu.ca/assets/rubyk... We’re also hiring Ruby and Rails developers at Shopify! www.shopify.com/careers
blog.peterzhu.ca
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 17/04/2025
Come to my #rubykaigi talk today at 3:40 to look at the modular garbage collectors feature in Ruby 3.4. We’ll discuss what it is, how it’s implemented, and how we’re implementing MMTk using modular GC. Hope to see you there! rubykaigi.org/2025/present...
rubykaigi.org
Modular Garbage Collectors in Ruby
RubyKaigi 2025, #rubykaigi
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 19/03/2025
New PC day!
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Peter Zhu @peterzhu.ca · 24/02/2025
Welcome to the team John! Looking forward to working with you
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