Compiler Transforms - Rubinius
Author: Less Than Three. <3. http://less.thanthree.com
Description: Rubinius is an implementation of the Ruby programming language. The Rubinius bytecode virtual machine is written in C++. The bytecode compiler is written in pure Ruby. The vast majority of the core library is also written in Ruby, with some supporting primitives that interact with the VM directly.

1.2.3

## Compiler Transforms

The bytecode compiler has a simple AST transform mechanism that recognizes certain AST forms and replaces them. The replaced forms emit different bytecode than the original form would have emitted. The source for the transforms is in lib/compiler/ast/transforms.rb

TODO: document the compiler plugin architecture.

### Safe Math Compiler Transform

Since the core libraries are built of the same blocks as any other Ruby code and since Ruby is a dynamic language with open classes and late binding, it is possible to change fundamental classes like Fixnum in ways that violate the semantics that other classes depend on. For example, imagine we did the following:

class Fixnum def +(other) (self + other) % 5 end end

While it is certainly possible to redefine fixed point arithmetic plus to be modulo 5, doing so will certainly cause some class like Array to be unable to calculate the correct length when it needs to. The dynamic nature of Ruby is one of its cherished features but it is also truly a double-edged sword in some respects.

In the standard library the ‘mathn’ library redefines Fixnum#/ in an unsafe and incompatible manner. The library aliases Fixnum#/ to Fixnum#quo, which returns a Float by default.

Because of this there is a special compiler plugin that emits a different method name when it encounters the #/ method. The compiler emits #divide instead of #/. The numeric classes Fixnum, Bignum, Float, and Numeric all define this method.

The safe math transform is enabled during the compilation of the Core libraries to enable the plugin. During regular ‘user code’ compilation, the plugin is not enabled. This enables us to support mathn without breaking the core libraries or forcing inconvenient practices.