Shopify / Shopify/rubydex

Experiment splitting declaration and definition storage

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Dominant language
Rust
Stars
355
Forks
24
Avg merge
2d 6h
Merged PRs (30d)
17

Description

We currently store all declarations and definitions in their respective maps, which is part of the reason why we need to use u64 rather than u32 for IDs.

I think we may be able to change that situation if we partition the maps. One example of how we might do it is:

  • constants: IdentityHashMap<ConstantId, Declaration> all constants including namespaces
  • methods: IdentityHashMap<MethodId, Declaration> all methods
  • variables: IdentityHashMap<VariableId, Declaration> global, class and instance variables

Experimenting with the granularity may also reveal interesting trade offs. The only concern is that we need to be able to trace the graph from the top (declarations) and from the bottom (documents).

  • From the top, we need to be able to derive the entity kind from the name. By looking at Foo, we don't know if it's a constant, constant alias, module, class. So having a single ConstantId probably makes sense. However, we always know when something is a method, global, class or instance variable. So we could get very granular if that proves to reduce memory or yield better performance
  • From the bottom, we always know how a definition gets connected to its declaration, so it's straight forward

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First steps

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Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by locating the declaration and definition maps and the ID types, then trace how the graph is followed from declarations and documents. Done should include a measured evaluation of the partitioning experiment and a clear decision on whether to adopt it.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
ruby, rust
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Refactor
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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