Virtual Type
A virtual type implementation that serves as a representation of a segment of data
Inspiration
While working on a JSON parser, I constantly used .slice(), which resulted in new string allocations and unnecessary data copying. This frequent allocation led to significant memory bloat and performance degradation.
I began to explore whether it was possible to create a specialized type that could represent a data segment without causing these issues and came up with Virtual Types.
By utilizing this approach, I managed to increase the performance of JSON parsing, specifically for a Vector 3, boosting operations from 8,159,838m ops to an impressive 39,260,740m ops. The results are wild.
Usage
import { Virtual } from "as-virtual/assembly";
const virt = new Virtual<string>("hello world!", 6);
// Virt represents "Hello World!".slice(6)
virt.equals("world!"); // true
virt.equals("yo-yo!"); // false
// Reinstantiate Virtual with new data
virt.reinst("Hello yo-yo!", 6);
virt.equals("yo-yo!"); // true
console.log(virt.copyOut()); // "yo-yo!"API
new Virtual<T>(data: T, start: i32, end: i32) - Create a new Virtual instance
Virtual.createEmpty<T>(): Virtual<T> - Create a Virtual that is not attached to parent data
Virtual.mergeVirts<T>(items: Virtual<T>[]): T - Merge multiple Virtuals into one instance of T
reinst(data: T, start: i32, end: i32): void - Assign new parent data to the Virtual without re-allocating
equals(eq: T): boolean - Test for equality between Virtual and provided data
copyOut(): T - Copy the data segment and return it as T. Result is detached from parent data.
merge(item: Virtual<T>): T - Merge current Virtual with another Virtual.
exists(): boolean - Check if parent data exists. Should be checked after using Virtual.createEmpty.
destroy(): void - Destroy the Virtual. Will be freed from memory and cannot be used or referenced again without error.
clear(): void - Clear the parent data from memory and destroy the Virtual.