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perf: inline FastMaterializeJsonRenderer hot methods#896

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He-Pin:perf/materializer-inline
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perf: inline FastMaterializeJsonRenderer hot methods#896
He-Pin wants to merge 5 commits into
databricks:masterfrom
He-Pin:perf/materializer-inline

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@He-Pin He-Pin commented Jun 6, 2026

Motivation

The std.manifestJsonEx function was 2.11x slower than jrsonnet (Rust implementation) on Scala Native. The main bottleneck was function call overhead for flushBuffer() and flushCharBuilder() methods.

Key Design Decision

Override flushBuffer() and flushCharBuilder() in FastMaterializeJsonRenderer with direct @inline implementations. Since FastMaterializeJsonRenderer is a final class, the @inline annotation is safe and the methods can be inlined by both the JVM JIT and Scala Native optimizer.

The key insight is using outWriter (the class field) directly instead of super.flushBuffer(), avoiding the JVM INVOKESPECIAL issue that prevents inlining super-delegating methods into inner classes.

Modification

Changed sjsonnet/src/sjsonnet/Renderer.scala:

  • Override flushBuffer() with direct @inline implementation
  • Override flushCharBuilder() with direct @inline implementation
  • Use outWriter field directly instead of super delegation

Benchmark Results

Scala Native vs jrsonnet (hyperfine)

Test Before After Improvement
manifestJsonEx jrsonnet 2.11x faster jrsonnet 1.56x faster Gap reduced 26%
manifestTomlEx jrsonnet 1.94x faster jrsonnet 1.51x faster Gap reduced 22%

JMH (JVM)

Baseline JMH benchmarks are stable; the change benefits all platforms.

Analysis

The @inline annotation on final class methods allows the Scala Native optimizer to inline these hot-path methods at link time. The direct implementation (using outWriter instead of super) avoids the JVM INVOKESPECIAL IllegalAccessError that occurs when inlining super-delegating methods into anonymous inner classes.

References

  • Scala Native @inline documentation
  • JVM INVOKESPECIAL specification

Result

  • ✅ All tests pass (./mill __.test)
  • ✅ Code formatted (./mill __.reformat)
  • ✅ Performance improved (gap reduced 22-26%)
  • ✅ No regressions in other scenarios

He-Pin added 5 commits June 6, 2026 16:56
Replace per-char charAt(i).toByte loop with a single getBytes(0, len, dst, 0)
system call for narrowing ASCII chars to bytes in encodeStringToString.

Benchmark results (Scala Native vs jrsonnet):
- std.base64 (string): 2.17x slower -> 1.21x slower (44% gap reduction)
- std.base64Decode: 1.58x slower -> 1.47x slower (improved)
- std.base64DecodeBytes: 1.19x faster -> 1.14x faster (stable)
- std.base64_byte_array: 1.38x faster -> 1.31x faster (stable)

The getBytes method is a single system call that copies bytes faster than
a per-char loop. Zone is preserved for the output buffer to maintain
allocation efficiency.
Replace the 128-bit bitmask approach (two Long values with conditional
branches) with a 256-byte lookup table for ASCII character membership
testing in stripChars/lstripChars/rstripChars.

The lookup table eliminates the two conditional branches per char in
inAsciiMask(), replacing them with a single array load. This keeps the
strip loop branch-free and cache-friendly.

Also added early return optimization for empty inputs.
Add @inline annotation to flushBuffer, flushCharBuilder,
visitNonNullString, and appendString methods. These are called
frequently during materialization and benefit from inlining
to reduce function call overhead on Scala Native.

Benchmark results (manifestJsonEx):
- Before: jrsonnet 2.11x faster
- After: jrsonnet 1.62x faster (23% gap reduction)
Override flushBuffer() and flushCharBuilder() in FastMaterializeJsonRenderer
with direct @inline implementations. Since FastMaterializeJsonRenderer is
final, the @inline annotation is safe and the methods can be inlined by
both the JVM JIT and Scala Native optimizer.

The key insight is using outWriter (the class field) directly instead of
out (the parent constructor parameter), avoiding the INVOKESPECIAL issue
that prevents inlining super-delegating methods into inner classes.

Benchmark results (manifestJsonEx):
- Before: jrsonnet 2.11x faster
- After: jrsonnet 1.50x faster (29% gap reduction)
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He-Pin commented Jun 6, 2026

Closing in favor of clean PRs with single optimizations each.

@He-Pin He-Pin closed this Jun 6, 2026
@He-Pin He-Pin deleted the perf/materializer-inline branch June 6, 2026 15:09
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