# New Ruby Implementation -- Gobi

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-ruby-implementation-gobi/133604>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [April 2, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-ruby-implementation-gobi/133604 "2008-04-02T00:09:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/e47774/32.png) [@naething](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/naething)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-ruby-implementation-gobi/133604/1 "2008-04-02T00:09:42Z")

</div>

Gobi version 1.0.0 has been released!

- [http://gobi.stonecode.org](http://gobi.stonecode.org)
- [http://metametta.blogspot.com](http://metametta.blogspot.com)
- [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

I am happy to announce the first release of my new fork of Ruby called  
Gobi. The goal of Gobi is to implement features that I have noticed to  
be completely missing.

For example, Ruby’s standard library does not even implement a  
datastructure that can easily represent a Go board. Gobi has this  
built in as an NArray based, highly efficient structure:

> > x = Goban.new  
> > x.place\_stone(:black, :at =\> “a4”)  
> > x.place\_stone(:white, :at =\> “c16”)  
> > x.place\_stone(:black, :at =\> “a4”)  
> > StoneCollisionError: There is already a stone at a4.  
> > from (irb):3 in `place_stone`  
> > from (irb):6

As you can see from the example above, Gobi is very friendly to those  
writing computer Go applications. For those wishing to write AI bots  
to play the game, Gobi also goes through a lot of effort to make Ruby  
more efficient.

A major improvement in performance was gained through the removal of  
automatic garbage collection. This means that programmers need to be  
sure to clean up after themselves, but any Rubyist who also has an  
interest in Go will surely be sufficiently skilled to design programs  
that avoid memory leaks.

The implementation of object destructors in Gobi is simple, due to the  
addition of a release\_resources hook in Object. A delete keyword has  
also been added, which will explicitly start up the garbage collection  
process.

Here’s an example of manual garbage collection in Gobi:

class Foo

def initialize  
@board = Goban.new  
end

def release\_resources  
delete @board  
end  
end

Please keep in mind that although the built in classes all have  
sensible release\_resources implementations, that if you’re feeling  
adventurous, you can of course override them. A current fun game in  
Gobi is to run a stopwatch and see how quickly memory runs out when  
you write some code like this:

class String  
def release\_resources; end  
end

string = ‘a’  
1\_000\_000\_000.times do  
string = string.succ  
end

Of course, though humorous, this should serve as a warning to you: Be  
sure to properly discard your objects!

This announcement just scratches the tip of the iceberg of what Gobi  
offers.

Other cool features include:

- The removal of Ruby 1.9’s giant interpreter lock, as Go programs  
tend to benefit from the power of true concurrency. (Unfortunately,  
these patches are very platform dependent)

- A major reshifting of Ruby’s standard library. Things like option  
parsing, zlib support, and fileutils aren’t really that useful for  
programming computer Go applications, so they have been removed. Many  
new libraries have been added, including an SGF analysis tool and a  
GTP network implementation.

- An interface to a special (Proverb Semantics Parsing) PSP tool,  
which allows you to train Go playing robots by simply reminding them  
of proverbs such as “Hane at the head of two stones”, and “The empty  
triangle is bad”, rather than resorting to low level, complicated AI  
programming. This system can be used via irb while a game is under  
review in Gobi’s built in Tk based SGF editor. Gobi shows that by  
mindlessly memorizing proverbs, Go playing bots can decrease their  
rank by two stones in half the time that an average human can.

- The removal of all lesser data structures such as the Array, the  
Hash, and the Set. In Gobi, all of these structures could trivially  
be built as a subclass of the Goban, so there is no need to keep them  
around.

Though I will be taking off 6 months from Gobi development to work on  
the Ruby Mendicant project, I hope that people enjoy this early  
experimental release and that soon Ruby will be free from the core  
team’s shackles to do what it truly deserves to: Reach 30 kyu on KGS  
with a Gobi based bot!

Though only time will tell, I am considering reworking Gobi to fork  
Aaron P.'s excellent Brobinius implementation, as Gobi deserves  
some high quality Grosenbach screencasts.

- [http://gobi.stonecode.org](http://gobi.stonecode.org)
- [http://metametta.blogspot.com](http://metametta.blogspot.com)
- [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)