Ruby 1.9 MRI vs Google Dart 0.2 TP

Ok, I know I know. Those are not tests, but I was just trying out Dart language tonight and I wanted to share this. Such a young language, but driven by V8 Google team, is that fast.

This is my Ruby version compiled about four weeks ago. By MRI I mean Matz Reference Implementation, the widely used Ruby VM. There are more and faster, but not much.

$ ruby --version
ruby 1.9.3p286 (2012-10-12 revision 37165) [x86_64-linux]

And this is Dart I just downloaded today, compiled one week ago. By TP I mean Technology Preview. This is work in progress for sure.

$ dart --version
Dart VM version: 0.2.2.1_14493_chrome-bot (Fri Nov  2 11:25:18 2012)

Now the “fight” code for Ruby:

$ cat fib.rb
def fib(n)
    n < 2 ? n : fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
end
for i in 1..40
    f = fib i
    puts "#{i} + #{f}"
end

And the same for Dart:

$ cat fib.dart 
int fib(int n) {
   if (n < 2) return n;
   return fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2);
}
main() {
  for (int i = 0; i <= 40; i++) {
    var f = fib(i);
    print("$i = $f");
  }
}

Again, this says really nothing. But what can stop me from running this? ;-)

$ time ruby fib.rb
1 + 1
2 + 1
3 + 2
4 + 3
5 + 5
6 + 8
7 + 13
8 + 21
9 + 34
10 + 55
11 + 89
12 + 144
13 + 233
14 + 377
15 + 610
16 + 987
17 + 1597
18 + 2584
19 + 4181
20 + 6765
21 + 10946
22 + 17711
23 + 28657
24 + 46368
25 + 75025
26 + 121393
27 + 196418
28 + 317811
29 + 514229
30 + 832040
31 + 1346269
32 + 2178309
33 + 3524578
34 + 5702887
35 + 9227465
36 + 14930352
37 + 24157817
38 + 39088169
39 + 63245986
40 + 102334155

real    1m9.215s
user    1m6.852s
sys 0m0.035s

A minute and ten. Not bad. Now let’s have a look on Dart.

$ time dart fib.dart 
0 = 0
1 = 1
2 = 1
3 = 2
4 = 3
5 = 5
6 = 8
7 = 13
8 = 21
9 = 34
10 = 55
11 = 89
12 = 144
13 = 233
14 = 377
15 = 610
16 = 987
17 = 1597
18 = 2584
19 = 4181
20 = 6765
21 = 10946
22 = 17711
23 = 28657
24 = 46368
25 = 75025
26 = 121393
27 = 196418
28 = 317811
29 = 514229
30 = 832040
31 = 1346269
32 = 2178309
33 = 3524578
34 = 5702887
35 = 9227465
36 = 14930352
37 = 24157817
38 = 39088169
39 = 63245986
40 = 102334155

real    0m3.936s
user    0m3.767s
sys 0m0.006s

Four seconds. Wait, four seconds? Hmmm, does this mean Dart VM is faster than Ruby VM? Not necessarily. Does this mean optimizer in Dart is better than in Ruby? Hell yeah!