What's the "current" Ruby?

[James Britt]

Yugui wrote, "Ruby 1.8 series has been used since 2003 and many great
products were born on it. Today Ruby 1.9 series starts its history as
1.8 series did."

This suggests that, as 1.8 superseded 1.6, 1.9 now supersedes 1.8,
making it the current Ruby (though 1.8 remains for those who prefer to
use it).

Is that a reasonable interpretation?

1.8.8 is planned for release. Why, and when does 1.8 development stop?

Put another way, for how long would people be expected that new code
they write work on both 1.9 and 1.8? Or at what point would a developer
tell users of 1.8 that backwards compatibility is no longer a priority?

Yes, I known these are broad questions. I'm trying to get a sense of
how the transition is intended and practiced.




--
James Britt

www.happycamperstudios.com - Wicked Cool Coding
www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff

 

[Phlip]

Yugui wrote, "Ruby 1.8 series has been used since 2003 and many great
products were born on it. Today Ruby 1.9 series starts its history as
1.8 series did."

This suggests that, as 1.8 superseded 1.6, 1.9 now supersedes 1.8,
making it the current Ruby (though 1.8 remains for those who prefer to
use it).

Is that a reasonable interpretation?

1.8.8 is planned for release. Why, and when does 1.8 development stop?

Do any of the leading Killer Apps, such as Rails, support 1.9?

Put another way, for how long would people be expected that new code
they write work on both 1.9 and 1.8? Or at what point would a developer
tell users of 1.8 that backwards compatibility is no longer a priority?

What did the transition from 1.6 to 1.8 look like?

 

[Brian Candler]

What did the transition from 1.6 to 1.8 look like?

It was pretty easy. Little fundamental changed, but a bunch of new
useful classes like StringIO were added, and you could get them in 1.6
by adding the shim library.

In part, that's what 1.8.7 gives you. But note that:

- 1.9 has features which can't be back-ported to 1.8 (e.g. Fiber)

- 1.9 runs a completely different engine under the hood, and bugs are
still being turned up it.

- 1.9 makes several important non-backwards-compatible changes, which
break not only your own code but the code in libraries that you use.

- some of us remain unconvinced about some of the new syntax, like the
ugly -> lambda, and are still secretly hoping that they will be removed


Of these, I think the lack of library compatibility and the different
engine may be the most important. Lots of people stayed on 1.6.8 for a
long time not because of any major incompatibilities with 1.8, but
because it was a stable and trusted platform.

 

[Tim Pease]

It was pretty easy. Little fundamental changed, but a bunch of new
useful classes like StringIO were added, and you could get them in 1.6
by adding the shim library.

- some of us remain unconvinced about some of the new syntax, like the
ugly -> lambda, and are still secretly hoping that they will be
removed

I like the "stabby proc". Just be careful that you don't poke your eye
out!

Blessings,
TwP