I just posted to ruby-talk a medium-length discussion of a new idea for
solving the Ruby/Java string coercion issue in JRuby. Please go there
and participate, since I think it deserves wider attention than the
JRuby lists can offer.
The basic gist is this:
Rather than automatically coercing String (and possibly other types) we
will coerce according to Ruby protocols; namely, Java integration will
define a to_jstring (or to_String, or something) method on Ruby String
that will be used to coerce to a JString object. JString will be
introduced as the type of Java String entering Ruby code, and it will
also obey Ruby coercion protocols by implementing to_str.
Differences for you:
- Calling Java methods with Ruby strings will work as it does today,
except that you now have the option to pre-coerce or work with JString
to avoid the implicit coercion cost.
- Calling Java methods that return String will no longer automatically
return Java String, but will return a "String-like" JString object you
can then to_str or use directly.
I think long term this is probably going to be the best balance between
functionality and performance. The current logic hides too much of a
performance hit behind too much magic.
Reply on ruby-talk please :)
- Charlie
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, please visit:
http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
