Why is Ruby 1.9 not called Ruby 2.0?

[The Higgs bozo]

Given the systemic and fundamental changes in 1.9, I wonder why it
wasn't given a clean break with the 2.0 name? I know Matz had his own
ideas for 2.0, but why couldn't he call his version 3.0?

There's a communication issue here, especially for non-rubyists. Ruby
has been known for being a bit slower than other popular languages, and
1.9 represents a big improvement from the past. But the name 1.9 does
not communicate the newness of it. It looks like just another release
of the same.

On the one hand we can agree that names do not _ultimately_ matter. But
on the other hand it's problematic to explain and re-explain that 1.9 is
quite different despite its name. The casual observer may never know.

Since an official production release of 1.9 hasn't happened yet, would
it be impossible to convince the higher-ups to take the plunge and call
it 2.0?

 

[Gregory Brown]

Given the systemic and fundamental changes in 1.9, I wonder why it
wasn't given a clean break with the 2.0 name? I know Matz had his own
ideas for 2.0, but why couldn't he call his version 3.0?

There's a communication issue here, especially for non-rubyists. Ruby
has been known for being a bit slower than other popular languages, and
1.9 represents a big improvement from the past. But the name 1.9 does
not communicate the newness of it. It looks like just another release
of the same.

On the one hand we can agree that names do not _ultimately_ matter. But
on the other hand it's problematic to explain and re-explain that 1.9 is
quite different despite its name. The casual observer may never know.

Since an official production release of 1.9 hasn't happened yet, would
it be impossible to convince the higher-ups to take the plunge and call
it 2.0?

In Ruby, major change is indicated by x.y.z -> x.(y+1).z, not
necessarily (x + 1).y.z

 

[Trans]

 

[Gregory Brown]

Maybe so, but then what kind of change is x + 1?

I follow this pattern for my projects, and I wonder this myself.

I reserve x + 1 for something that will 'totally change' a project.
For example, Replacing PDF::Writer with Prawn in Ruport will result in
Ruport 2.0, because it's going to break absolutely everything.

So I think x + 1 is reserved for whenever a crazy party is in order,
or at least a crazy riot.

-greg

 

[Ron Fox]

Given the systemic and fundamental changes in 1.9, I wonder why it
wasn't given a clean break with the 2.0 name? I know Matz had his own
ideas for 2.0, but why couldn't he call his version 3.0?

There's a communication issue here, especially for non-rubyists. Ruby
has been known for being a bit slower than other popular languages, and
1.9 represents a big improvement from the past. But the name 1.9 does
not communicate the newness of it. It looks like just another release
of the same.

On the one hand we can agree that names do not _ultimately_ matter. But
on the other hand it's problematic to explain and re-explain that 1.9 is
quite different despite its name. The casual observer may never know.

Since an official production release of 1.9 hasn't happened yet, would
it be impossible to convince the higher-ups to take the plunge and call
it 2.0?

Because Matz gets to decide what the version number is. No other
reason than that :-D