The business of executing Ruby code is booming; with so many Ruby environments in development, there are just as many different ways of actually running code. We’ve been hard at work in the world of Rubinius, and over the last few months we’ve been focused on a new way of executing Ruby code by converting it to machine code at run-time—a Just-In-Time compiler.

In this post, I’ll walk you through how Ruby code begins as text and is converted into bytecode. In a follow up post, I’ll go from bytecode to the machine code itself.

Rubinius, which you've no doubt heard lots about over the last few years, is an implementation of the Ruby language written from scratch using cutting edge technology and the best industry research. Based on the questions we've received over the past few months, it's clear that a lot of folks are looking to learn more about the technologies behind the project. This is exciting because with so much written in Ruby, Rubinius positively begs Ruby developers to experiment and explore.