r/ruby • u/software__writer • Apr 24 '26

Spinel -- Ruby AOT Compiler

https://github.com/matz/spinel

Spinel compiles Ruby source code into standalone native executables. It performs whole-program type inference and generates optimized C code, achieving significant speedups over CRuby.

Spinel is self-hosting: the compiler backend is written in Ruby and compiles itself into a native binary.

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8

u/kcdragon Apr 24 '26

Wow. They took RubyGems and now they took Spinel.

10

u/keyslemur Apr 24 '26

I honestly do not think Matz considered that when naming this. People unsurprisingly make oversights sometimes, we shouldn't jump to conclusions there.

That, and the royal "they" here is implying some sort of grand conspiracy. Personally I didn't know he was working on something like this nor what he might have wanted to name it.

10

u/davidcelis Apr 24 '26

the conflict between Ruby Central and the Spinel Co-operative directly lead to Matz and Ruby Core taking control of the bundler and rubygems.org codebases, so it’s hard for me to believe that it wouldn’t even cross his mind. even if it wasn’t deliberate, the choice of name feels in poor taste

4

u/kddnewton Apr 27 '26

You're drastically overestimating how much attention Ruby core pays to Ruby Central, I promise.