# Re: How to speed up ruby and make it as fast as possible

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-how-to-speed-up-ruby-and-make-it-as-fast-as-possible/98444>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 14, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-how-to-speed-up-ruby-and-make-it-as-fast-as-possible/98444 "2006-07-14T20:21:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ebca7d/32.png) [@jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jamal86)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-how-to-speed-up-ruby-and-make-it-as-fast-as-possible/98444/1 "2006-07-14T20:21:35Z")

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Hi Justin,  
I am glad that Ruby 2 is being worked on, which will bring speed and  
other improvements. What prompted my original statement on this issue  
was a message that simply told someone to use C when the question was  
asked about ways to speed up Ruby programs. I think a more constructive  
response to such questions begins by acknowledging this current problem  
in Ruby, partly to reassure him or her that the problem is not just a  
matter of programming deficiency. The response might then remind one of  
the ease of development benefits that one gets in return, as well as  
summarizing projects underway to improve performance as well. I think  
it’s fine to explain how C may be used for time-sensitive parts of an  
application if one already knows C. In general, however, I do not think  
it is reasonable to expect someone to learn a fundamentally different,  
low level language for this purpose. It is definitely not constructive  
to demean their programming interest and skills if they do not know or  
want to learn C.

Regards,  
Jamal

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**Author:** ![jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ebca7d/32.png) [@jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jamal86)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-how-to-speed-up-ruby-and-make-it-as-fast-as-possible/98444/2 "2006-07-14T20:30:59Z")

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On Sat, 15 Jul 2006, Jamal M. wrote:

> Hi Justin,  
> I am glad that Ruby 2 is being worked on, which will bring speed and  
> other improvements. What prompted my original statement on this issue  
> was a message that simply told someone to use C when the question was  
> asked about ways to speed up Ruby programs. I think a more constructive  
> response to such questions begins by acknowledging this current problem  
> in Ruby, partly to reassure him or her that the problem is not just a

You insist that this is a “problem”.

But you neither qualify or quantify the problem. Why is current Ruby  
performance a problem, and at what level of performance does it cease to  
be a problem?

Kirk H.

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**Author:** ![jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ebca7d/32.png) [@jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jamal86)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 8:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-how-to-speed-up-ruby-and-make-it-as-fast-as-possible/98444/3 "2006-07-14T20:34:48Z")

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removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote:

> You insist that this is a “problem”.

The Goal of all programs and languages is to execute in O(0) Time 😉

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**Author:** ![jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ebca7d/32.png) [@jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jamal86)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-how-to-speed-up-ruby-and-make-it-as-fast-as-possible/98444/4 "2006-07-14T20:41:36Z")

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Jamal,  
Stop being a troll.

Ruby is comparable in speed to other interpreted languages. If you’d  
like to speed up your code profiling your code and cleaning up  
algorithmic bottlenecks is the simplest way. After that, optimizing in  
C is the way to go. You don’t have to do it this way, but it is one of  
the few answers to the problem and is a valid response to the  
question.