guys, I didn't find the schedule in the official site.
Thanks.
Forgive me for saying this, but I think that version numbers are =20
completely the _wrong_ way to think about programming languages! Sure, =20=
maybe at first, when a language is young and not capable of much, it =20
makes sense to call it 0.8 or 1.0 or whatnot, but I think Ruby is past =20=
that point. I think this was apparent in Dave Thomas "Fork Ruby" talk. =20=
Ruby will advance through new implementations, new library methods, =20
new variants, even if it doesn't progress through new versions.
The simplest way to think about it is to look at other languages. =20
Languages like C, C++, SmallTalk, and Fortran don't have versions, =20
they have specifications. Those specifications, though, work like =20
Ruby's versions in some sense. That is, in one way, the Ruby version =20
is the version for MRI, and in another way, the Ruby version describes =20=
a set of functionality that any other implementation must provide to =20
call itself Ruby. So, think of the Major and Minor version numbers =20
like a spec (1.6, 1.8, 1.9), and the revision and patchlevel numbers =20
are more specific to MRI.
Now, look at something like Fortran. I know lot's of people who are =20
still writing Fortran 77 code. That's a language that was designed 31 =20=
years ago! Does that mean it's a dead or static language? Not by a =20
long shot. Companies like Intel, IBM, and the Portland Group are still =20=
improving on F77 compilers, adding in support for SIMD and the like. =20
Look at C++. It's working off a standard that's 10 years old. Sure, =20
there's a new standard forthcoming, but much of what will appear in =20
the new standard are things that people have already included in =20
libraries like Boost, or in experimental branches of GCC and whatnot.
Also, consider that when Ruby 2.0 comes out, it will probably require =20=
a lot of in-depth work by the alternative implementation authors. It's =20=
probably best if that process takes a while. I'm thinking that the =20
2013-2015 time frame for Ruby 2.0 sounds just about right.
My 2=A2, anyway...
Cheers,
Josh=