[ruby-core:96578] [Ruby master Feature#16461] Proc#using

[eregontp@gmail.com]

Issue #16461 has been updated by Eregon (Benoit Daloze).


This still has the problem that it mutates the Proc, what should happen if another Thread concurrently does `block.using(OtherRefinement)` ?

Also it still seems inefficient, at least if there are `block.using(refinement)` with different refinements.
IMHO refinements should remain lexically scoped, so for a given call site it always means the same set of refinements.

That's how it's implemented in TruffleRuby, we use the guarantee that at a given call site refinements cannot change.
So then we can just consider the used refinements during the first method lookup, and after don't need to check anything extra, which mean zero overhead for refinements on peak performance.
There is no special detection for `using`, every call site considers refinements during method lookup.

For your example above, I think `using IntegerDivExt` at the top level would be much clearer.
Do you have a motivating example where that approach is much better than existing refinements?

----------------------------------------
Feature #16461: Proc#using
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16461#change-83543

* Author: shugo (Shugo Maeda)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: 
* Target version: 2.8
----------------------------------------
## Overview
I propose Proc#using to support block-level refinements.

```ruby
module IntegerDivExt
  refine Integer do
    def /(other)
      quo(other)
    end
  end
end

def instance_eval_with_integer_div_ext(obj, &block)
  block.using(IntegerDivExt) # using IntegerDivExt in the block represented by the Proc object
  obj.instance_eval(&block)
end

# necessary where blocks are defined (not where Proc#using is called)
using Proc::Refinements

p 1 / 2 #=> 0
instance_eval_with_integer_div_ext(1) do
  p self / 2 #=> (1/2)
end
p 1 / 2 #=> 0
```

## PoC implementation
For CRuby: https://github.com/shugo/ruby/pull/2
For JRuby: https://github.com/shugo/jruby/pull/1

## Background
I proposed [Feature #12086: using: option for instance_eval etc.](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/12086) before, but it has problems:

* Thread safety: The same block can be invoked with different refinements in multiple threads, so it's hard to implement method caching.
* _exec family support: {instance,class,module}_exec cannot be supported.
* Implicit use of refinements: every blocks can be used with refinements, so there was implementation difficulty in JRuby and it has usability issue in headius's opinion.

## Solutions in this proposal

### Thread safety
Proc#using affects the block represented by the Proc object, neither the specific Proc object nor the specific block invocation.
Method calls in a block are resolved with refinements which are used by Proc#using in the block at the time.
Once all possible refinements are used in the block, there is no need to invalidate method cache anymore.

See [these tests](https://github.com/shugo/ruby/pull/2/commits/1c922614ad7d1fb43b73e195348c81da7a4546ef) to understand how it works.
Which refinements are used is depending on the order of Proc#using invocations until all Proc#using calls are finished, but eventually method calls in a block are resolved with the same refinements.

### * _exec family support
[Feature #12086](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/12086) was an extension of _eval family, so it cannot be used with _exec family, but Proc#using is independent from _eval family, and can be used with _exec family:

```ruby
def instance_exec_with_integer_div_ext(obj, *args, &block)
  block.using(IntegerDivExt)
  obj.instance_exec(*args, &block)
end

using Proc::Refinements

p 1 / 2 #=> 0
instance_exec_with_integer_div_ext(1, 2) do |other|
  p self / other #=> (1/2)
end
p 1 / 2 #=> 0
```

### Implicit use of refinements

Proc#using can be used only if `using Proc::Refinements` is called in the scope of the block represented by the Proc object.
Otherwise, a RuntimeError is raised.

There are two reasons:

* JRuby creates a special CallSite for refinements at compile-time only when `using` is called at the scope.
* When reading programs, it may help understanding behavior.  IMHO, it may be unnecessary if libraries which uses Proc#using are well documented.

`Proc::Refinements` is a dummy module, and has no actual refinements.






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