node-rot13

Sync and async implementations of rot13 in a c++ extension for node.js.

This is me trying to learn C++ and v8 at the same time. Please tell me if you see anything I'm doing wrong or could do better.

And if you happen to have a rot13-intensive node.js application that's been dying to have the speed of a native rot13 C++ extension working asynchronously on the v8 thread pool, well then. Here you are.

Summary

lib/rot13_javascript.js is a JS implementation.

src/rot13.cpp is a C++ extension.

Build the node extension:

% node-waf configure build

Use like so:

% node
> var rot13 = require("./rot13")
> var r = new rot13.Rot13()
> r.rotate("Attack at dawn!")
'Nggnpx ng qnja!'

The c++ implementation includes an asynchronous method:

> r.rotateAsync("Attack at dawn!", function(r) { console.log("rot13: " + r)} )
rot13: Nggnpx ng qnja!

Run test/test.js to verify that the C++ and JS versions do the same thing.

Timing

On my MacBook, the first part of the test suite reports:

** Timing comparison (milliseconds)
rot13 encoding Aeneid, Book I, 100 times
Average js run: 2.77
Average cpp run: 2.59
Average cpp async run: 1.23

Note that the timing test runs the pure js encoder once in advance to give v8 a chance to compile it.

Rot13 is obviously a silly example, but it demonstrates the speed of node.js and js on v8. The synchronous js method is just about as fast as native C++.

It also shows the value of making your function async if possible. Here, the C++ rotateAsync() only spends about 40% of the time on the main node.js thread as the other two rotate() methods.

Resources

Paul Querna's Tutorial

To Do

1. Make this not happen when you forget to use new:

    > var rot13 = require("./rot13");
    > var r = rot13.Rot13();   // <-- didn't say "new rot13.Rot13()"
    Assertion failed: (handle->InternalFieldCount() > 0), function Wrap, file /usr/local/include/node/node_object_wrap.h, line 61.