tinyrb

> Just fix the VM then No the point isn't that the VM is broken. The point is that the Ruby language has semantics and is used in idioms that nobody knows how to optimise well yet. > tinyrb based on potion based on lua with classes is ~200x faster in method calls tinyrb is interesting, but it just isn't the same semantics as Ruby: https://github.com/macournoyer/tinyrb#what-wont-be-in-tinyrb... tinyrb doesn't have a better VM - they're implementing a different programming language with all the hard bits left out! In my project we've been having to do new original research into how to optimise Ruby - introducing concepts such as dispatch chains which haven't been needed more because people don't try to push metaprogramming in most language like they do in Ruby. http://stefan-marr.de/downloads/pldi15-marr-et-al-zero-overh...

The book is made by the creator of tinyrb (https://github.com/macournoyer/tinyrb). I've never read it, so I don't know whether it's any good, but I'm sure it's not a scam. Implementing a programming language is a pretty difficult but rewarding task. It's become a lot easier these days now that there are giant runtimes you can target (JVM, CLR and so on). I would encourage anyone who is interested to give it a shot, and to find a good book or course to do so. (That book from Brown dmunoz posted looks excellent) And once you've done that, try writing your own runtime too (garbage collector/virtual machine or native compiler). It will teach you a lot about the tools you use every day.