The answer is probably no but I thought I’d try: Is there a way to write Elixir functions that can be invoked by a Rails app as efficiently as a Ruby library? Most of my new Rails development is in the form of Ruby libs for parsing and string manipulation, used during a web apps’ request cycle. In …

[image] dogweather: Is there a way to write Elixir functions that can be invoked by a Rails app as efficiently as a Ruby library? No. Elixir compiles to BEAM byte code, and that byte code can only be run on the BEAM. [image] dogweather: (As I write this, I’m thinking about how ridic fast…

Just a crazy thought. What if you ran the elixir application in the same OS as the rails app? Then you could make keep-alive requests from Ruby to elixir. It’s not going to be as fast as native Ruby, but it would be fine in a lot of cases.

[image] benwilson512: Ideally in time your Elixir service could handle the root request directly. That’s the dream. Sure — here’s a page from my Rails app: Texas Election Code Section 15.005 – Notice of Identification Requirements I’m working on hyperlinking textual references like Chapter…

[image] sb8244: keep-alive requests… That’s interesting, essentially a long-lasting client/server session.

[image] benwilson512: No. Elixir compiles to BEAM byte code, and that byte code can only be run on the BEAM. Is there any way to expose Beam processes as dynamincally linked native libraries? If so, then Ruby FFI could work.

In theory yes, in practice it would be easier to do the other way around - implement Ruby VM as a NIF in BEAM. However if such cooperation is needed then I would look for ports or C-Nodes. The last one when ran on the same machine should result with pretty nice performance and API.

You could certainly skip HTTP, have Elixir just reading from Unix domain socket(s), commands in whatever stripped-down format you want to come up with, and the same for writing results back. (Communications over domain sockets is ridiculously fast.)

Could always build a BEAM node in Ruby too, they’d communicate by normal message passing then.

I don’t get the use case, but something “doable” if elixir/erlang are available in the same machine, could be to make system calls (eg with backticks syntax) to elixir… But this is highly tinkering.. Anyway good luck and interested to read more about your journey..

Known as C Nodes (despotę the name, these do not need to be written in C).

Fast Ruby/Rails interop?

Questions & Help Questions

dogweather December 30, 2019, 4:25am 6

Is there any way to expose Beam processes as dynamincally linked native libraries? If so, then Ruby FFI could work.