perf enhancements for logic

Author: gregsdennis

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+---
+title: "JSON Logic Without Models"
+date: 2024-04-18 09:00:00 +1200
+tags: [json-logic, architecture, performance]
+toc: true
+pin: false
+---
+
+Holy performance increase, Batman!
+
+I recently made an update to _JsonLogic.Net_ that cut run times and memory usage **in half**!
+
+## In half?!
+
+Yes!  Here's the benchmark:
+
+| Method | Count | Mean         | Error       | StdDev      | Gen0       | Allocated   |
+|------- |------ |-------------:|------------:|------------:|-----------:|------------:|
+| Models | 1     |   1,655.9 us |    26.76 us |    26.28 us |   410.1563 |   838.03 KB |
+| Nodes  | 1     |     734.5 us |     8.16 us |     7.23 us |   236.3281 |   482.61 KB |
+| Models | 10    |  16,269.0 us |   167.06 us |   139.50 us |  4093.7500 |   8380.5 KB |
+| Nodes  | 10    |   7,210.7 us |    25.26 us |    21.09 us |  2359.3750 |  4826.08 KB |
+| Models | 100   | 164,267.3 us | 2,227.54 us | 1,974.66 us | 41000.0000 | 83803.81 KB |
+| Nodes  | 100   |  72,195.7 us |   139.28 us |   116.30 us | 23571.4286 | 48262.05 KB |
+
+In this table, "Models" is the old way, and "Nodes" is the new way.
+
+As you can see, "Nodes" takes less than half as long to run, and it uses just over half the memory.
+
+## What do "Models" and "Nodes" represent?
+
+From the initial release of the library, JSON Logic is represented using its own object model via the `Rule` abstraction.  It would result in a large tree structure of strongly typed rules.  This is "Models".
+
+The benefit of this approach is that strong typing, meaning that if you wanted to build some logic in code, you could use the associated builder methods on the static `JsonLogic` class and you didn't have to worry about getting argument types wrong.
+
+However, as you can expect, building out this rule tree means heap allocations, and allocations, in general, are slow.
+
+The "Nodes" approach, introduced with v5.2.0, doesn't use the object model.  Instead, the system is stateless.  It uses `JsonNode` to represent the logic, and the system runs "static" handlers depending on which operation key is present.  This is the approach that I took with JSON-e, and it worked out so well that I wanted to see where else I could apply it.
+
+> I've had several attempts at making this approach for JSON Schema, and while it works, the performance isn't there yet.
+{: .prompt-info}
+
+JSON-e and JSON Logic also share a common basic design: they're both JSON representations of instructions that are processed with some kind of context data.
+
+## So no more strong typing?
+
+I think that's where I want to take this library.  With all of the soft typing and implicit conversions that JSON Logic uses anyway, I don't think it's going to be much of a problem for users.
+
+Even on the [JSON Logic playground](https://jsonlogic.com/), you enter your logic and data as JSON and it runs from there.  I don't see why this library can't work the same way.
+
+I don't really see a reason to need an object model.  (And with functional programming on the rise, maybe this stateless approach is the way of the future.)
+
+But ultimately, it comes down to you.  Have a play with the new setup.  The [docs](https://docs.json-everything.net/logic/basics/) are already updated.  I'd like to hear what you think.