dogweather
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 my app, I keep requests < 100ms.
I’d much rather write all new code in Elixir, but the only way I know to call it from Rails is as a web microservice.
(As I write this, I’m thinking about how ridic fast a stateless, logic-only Elixir web microservice can be: sub-millisecond. So I ought to have time to make a call to one during a Rails server’s response. And this might be my answer.)
Where Next?
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benwilson512
No. Elixir compiles to BEAM byte code, and that byte code can only be run on the BEAM.
Right, your Ruby service could just make an HTTP call to the Elixir service. Ideally in time your Elixir service could handle the root request directly.
Can you elaborate a bit more on the use case?
sb8244
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.
dogweather
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 63 and Section 13.142. And I’m doing this with many bodies of law.
The key logic is,
The web app, then, can use the full citations to generate HTML links.
dogweather
That’s interesting, essentially a long-lasting client/server session.
dogweather
Is there any way to expose Beam processes as dynamincally linked native libraries? If so, then Ruby FFI could work.
hauleth
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.
sribe
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.)
OvermindDL1
Could always build a BEAM node in Ruby too, they’d communicate by normal message passing then.
Sanjibukai
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..
hauleth
Known as C Nodes (despotę the name, these do not need to be written in C).