Should a newbie learn 1.6 or 1.8?

ruby-talk
1

I’m just starting to learn Ruby, and I’ve purchased Ruby in a Nutshell
and Programming Ruby. Both are based on version 1.6. Which version
should I use as I learn the language? 1.6 will correspond to the
documentation I have. If I installed 1.8, I could see spending time
dealing with situations where my program doesn’t work and after a lot
of head-scratching I eventually figure out that the reason is the new
behavior of 1.8. Any recommendations?

I kind of wish there were some labels I could print out and stick on
the appropriate pages of “Programming Ruby” that said “This has
changed in version 1.8.”

Thanks,

Steve

2

Steve Cooper wrote:

I’m just starting to learn Ruby, and I’ve purchased Ruby in a Nutshell
and Programming Ruby. Both are based on version 1.6. Which version
should I use as I learn the language? 1.6 will correspond to the
documentation I have. If I installed 1.8, I could see spending time
dealing with situations where my program doesn’t work and after a lot
of head-scratching I eventually figure out that the reason is the new
behavior of 1.8. Any recommendations?

I’d suggest using 1.8 because changes usually shouldn’t be all that
critical.

The good thing about 1.8 are all the subtle enhancements that you would
have expected to be in 1.6.8 anyway. If you still run into compatibility
problems you can always ask on this mailing list. :slight_smile:

Another bonus is that you’ll likely be able to run code posted on this
mailing list and other where with the new version.

I kind of wish there were some labels I could print out and stick on
the appropriate pages of “Programming Ruby” that said “This has
changed in version 1.8.”

http://dev.faeriemud.org/changes-1.8.0.html and
http://whytheluckystiff.net/articles/2003/08/04/rubyOneEightOh will list
some of the nice new features, but they aren’t complete unfortunately.

You can also always consult the change log which comes with Ruby.

Thanks,
Steve

Regards,
Florian Gross

3

What’s all your thoughts on using Ruby for a production application? The
language itself (and libraries) is well suited for the project, and the
performance is acceptable, even if some things may need to be done on C.

My only concern is stability. I originally developed my rcoaster
application on 1.6, but I’ve been running it on 1.8 lately, and I seem to
encounter a fairly large number of segmentation faults. Despite that, my
gut tells me that in 6-8 months, stability will be much better.

I’d just like to hear some opinions on what you think of putting my eggs
in the basket labeled “Ruby” for a production application. :slight_smile:

Derek Lewis

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4

My experience has been that Ruby is very stable so long as you don’t
link against libraries that use pthreads. All of my serious
difficulties with using Ruby in my production application have centered
around pthread libraries and Ruby’s corresponding --enable-pthread
directive. Even with those problems, I’ve found support, including
fixes, to be excellent, and the stability has improved immeasurably in
the past month or two. So looking at a 6-8 month timeframe, I think
even if you need to link against pthread, stability will be fine.

My $0.02,

Nathaniel

<:((><

···

On Jan 9, 2004, at 17:21, Derek Lewis wrote:

What’s all your thoughts on using Ruby for a production application?
The
language itself (and libraries) is well suited for the project, and the
performance is acceptable, even if some things may need to be done on
C.

My only concern is stability. I originally developed my rcoaster
application on 1.6, but I’ve been running it on 1.8 lately, and I seem
to
encounter a fairly large number of segmentation faults. Despite that,
my
gut tells me that in 6-8 months, stability will be much better.

I’d just like to hear some opinions on what you think of putting my
eggs
in the basket labeled “Ruby” for a production application. :slight_smile: