optimize by replacing interpolation with concatenation

README.rdoc

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ This will return a response object, which has body, headers and status attribute
 
 This supports all the major http verbs: [connect, delete, get, head, options, post, put, trace]
 
-You can also create a connection to try and keep open across multiple requests.
+You can also create a connection to try and keep open across multiple requests (more performant!).
 
   connection = Excon.new('http://geemus.com')
   connection.request(:method => 'GET')

benchmarks/concat_vs_interpolate.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+require 'rubygems'
+require 'tach'
+
+key = 'Content-Length'
+value = '100'
+Tach.meter(1_000) do
+  tach('concat') do
+    key << ': ' << value << "\r\n"
+  end
+  tach('interpolate') do
+    "#{key}: value\r\n"
+  end
+end
+
+# +-------------+----------+
+# | tach        | total    |
+# +-------------+----------+
+# | concat      | 0.000902 |
+# +-------------+----------+
+# | interpolate | 0.019667 |
+# +-------------+----------+

lib/excon.rb

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def self.new(url, params = {})
   %w{connect delete get head options post put trace}.each do |method|
     eval <<-DEF
       def self.#{method}(url, params = {}, &block)
-        new(url).request(params.merge!(:method => '#{method.upcase}'), &block)
+        new(url).request(params.merge!(:method => :#{method}), &block)
       end
     DEF
   end

lib/excon/connection.rb

@@ -17,12 +17,13 @@ def request(params, &block)
       begin
         params[:path] ||= @connection[:path]
         unless params[:path][0..0] == '/'
-          params[:path] = "/#{params[:path]}"
+          params[:path] = '/' << params[:path]
         end
-        request = "#{params[:method].upcase} #{params[:path]}?"
+        request = params[:method].to_s.upcase << ' ' << params[:path] << '?'
         for key, values in (params[:query] || @connection[:query] || {})
           for value in [*values]
-            request << "#{key}#{value && "=#{CGI.escape(value.to_s)}"}&"
+            value_string = value && ('=' << CGI.escape(value.to_s))
+            request << key << value_string << '&'
           end
         end
         request.chop!
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ def request(params, &block)
           0
         end
         for key, value in params[:headers]
-          request << "#{key}: #{value}\r\n"
+          request << key << ': ' << value << "\r\n"
         end
         request << "\r\n"
         socket.write(request)