[ruby-core:85566] [Ruby trunk Feature#14478] String #uminus should de-dupe unconditionally

From: sam.saffron@...
Date: 2018-02-14 23:38:31 UTC
List: ruby-core #85566
Issue #14478 has been updated by sam.saffron (Sam Saffron).


> Why not make it impossible to create a frozen string that isn't deduped?

This can not be done without enormous breakage, it would break the semantics of freeze, was already discussed with Matz and decided against. 

```
puts x.object_id
x.freeze
puts x.object_id # must not change 
```

----------------------------------------
Feature #14478: String #uminus should de-dupe unconditionally
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14478#change-70358

* Author: sam.saffron (Sam Saffron)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: 
* Target version: 
----------------------------------------
continuing: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14475

Current documentation for String uminus says: "If the string is frozen, then return the string itself."

Trouble is that there is no simple way to de-duplicate unconditionally without inefficiency:

Say `x` is an arbitrary string (either frozen or unfrozen) :

```
x = -x # may return a non fstring

x = -+x # will return fstring, but makes an unneeded copy

x = -x.dup # fstring again, uneeded copy 

x = x.frozen? ? -+x : -x # too verbose, uneeded copy
```

Instead why not change it so `-` is deduped unconditionally? 

I would argue this is worth backporting, cause if we are making fstring optimisations now, we are going to be stuck with legacy inefficient code going forward.

An alternative may be a c-extension gem that adds #fstring to String but that just feel wrong. 

I think the documentation should say:

String uminus says: "If the string is de-duplicated, then return the string itself."

Happy to make the change it is quite simple:`(FL_TEST(str, RSTRING_FSTR)` 






-- 
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/

Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
<http://lists.ruby-lang.org/cgi-bin/mailman/options/ruby-core>

In This Thread

Prev Next