Ruby Talks: Matheus Richard on Understanding Ruby Internals & Speaking at the Final RailsConf

Rhiannon Payne, Marketing Director at Ruby Central, chats with Matheus Richard, Senior Engineer at thoughtbot. Matheus is speaking at RailsConf 2025 in Philadelphia this summer (July 8-10). His talk is titled "Ruby Internals: A Guide For Rails Developers." Description: "Ever wondered how Ruby takes your code and runs it? It’s time to go on a journey into Ruby internals designed especially for Rails developers! We’ll learn about all the parts of an interpreter, and how their inner-workings affect our Rails apps! No experience with C is required! Join me as we unravel the secrets of the Ruby interpreter, delve into the intricacies of garbage collection, and explore the groundbreaking JIT optimizations. But fear not, we won't get lost in the technical maze! Together, we'll navigate through the essentials. Dismistifying CRuby interpreter is the first step to being able to contribute. Along the way, we'll learn how some features work and how to write more performant code! We'll uncover the impact of local vs. instance variables vs methods calls, the performance hits of metaprogramming, and understand how object shapes impact memory efficiency. Plus, gain insights into appreciating the immense dedication of Ruby's contributors and learn how you can become a part of this vibrant community."