crystal-libraries-neede VS Graal

This project started with this request: https://github.com/crystal-community/crystal-libraries-neede...

However, it is heavily based on the (abandoned?) py2rb work by Naitoh which I made enhancements to.

IMO, Rubyists should have an easier time with Crystal syntax since it is more similar. Also, the likelihood of having type annotations in Python is much higher than Ruby because type annotations have been around longer in Python, iirc.

There's one here: https://github.com/crystal-community/crystal-libraries-neede...

Not sure how active it is, though.

It wasn’t long before I ran into several other blog posts about developers successfully using GraalVM and frameworks such as Quarkus to address this very problem. And so I’ve decided to try it out for myself.

GraalVM adds an advanced just-in-time (JIT) optimizing compiler, which is written in Java, to the HotSpot Java Virtual Machine.

You can trim down the runtime[1] but the tooling around doing this is non-existent / unreliable. Alternatively, you can generate native binaries with GraalVM[2] which comes with its own baggage (license, slow compile time, etc).

[1]: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/embedded/develop-apps-platf...

[2]: https://www.graalvm.org/

Too bad it looks stuck since about a month ago (https://github.com/oracle/graal/issues/8350#issuecomment-210...), needs some attention from @jart.

Really now? Now that's interesting. I thought GraalVM might be a good option in that space https://www.graalvm.org/ last I checked, but something literally called Hermetic Java has my interest piqued.

Had to look back at the deep bug you described and I am happy that someone looked into it[1] and got it fixed.

Also happy that they so publicly acknowledged your work to narrow it down!

[1]: https://github.com/oracle/graal/issues/8747

They are indeed scary, but one thing that can make them less so is writing them in a high level language. A nice code base to study if you're new to GCs is the GenScavange module of SubstrateVM, a JVM written entirely in Java. Start here:

https://github.com/oracle/graal/blob/master/substratevm/src/...

It gets compiled to native code for use. It's actually a bit of a dialect of Java because of course, you need low level memory and stack access. So you can see at parts there is use of special APIs that get compiled to things like stack allocations, so it can avoid allocating on the heap whilst working with it. Even so the "business logic" of a GC can be easily seen here, especially if you don't know C++.