Optimizing Ruby's JSON: Part 1

2024-12-18

This blog post details how the author optimized Ruby's `json` gem to become one of the fastest JSON parsers and generators. Instead of complex techniques, simple optimizations were applied based on profiling, such as avoiding redundant checks, prioritizing cheaper conditions, reducing setup costs, and using lookup tables. These improvements apply to both C and Ruby code. The optimizations significantly boosted the `json` gem's performance, making it competitive with alternatives like `oj`, reducing the need for monkey patching, and addressing stability and compatibility issues associated with `oj`.