What version of Ruby should I use?

[Adam Fabian]

I noticed the download page has a couple of options, like 1.8.1, or
1.8.2 preview 3, or the latest stable snapshot. I did some googling and
browsing around the ruby-garden, and browsed the CVS repository itself
on the web a bit, and looked over the sections of the FAQ that seemed
likely to contain this kind of information, but I couldn't find any
information or figure out exactly how the development branches relate to
each other. So, I have two questions.

Can anyone point me to some info explaining the Ruby branches and how
they relate to each other?

As a new user that will most certainly not be pushing the features of
the language at all, and would probably be terribly confused by a bug
(although I will probably be using such commonly-used features that I
wouldn't hit any bugs with any reasonable choice), what version should I
use?

 

[James Edward Gray II]

As a new user that will most certainly not be pushing the features of
the language at all, and would probably be terribly confused by a bug
(although I will probably be using such commonly-used features that I
wouldn't hit any bugs with any reasonable choice), what version should
I
use?

I'm normally a "go with the latest stable version" kind-of-guy.
However, There have been a lot of exciting Ruby developments recently
that you don't want to miss out on and the 1.8.2 previews and very
smooth, in my opinion. I suggest 1.8.2pre3.

Hope that helps.

James Edward Gray II