[ruby-core:37866] [Backport87 - Feature #4996][Open] About 1.8.7 EOL

Issue #4996 has been reported by Shyouhei Urabe.

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Feature #4996: About 1.8.7 EOL
http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/4996

Author: Shyouhei Urabe
Status: Open
Priority: Normal
Assignee: 
Category: core
Target version: 


No, not  now.  Don't worry.  But  we have to start  talking about this
topic: when and how 1.8.7 should die.


"You should really use 1.9".  I have said this again and again and now
repeat it once more.  As we're  about to release 1.9.3 I can't but say
it is, totally wonderful.  Rich features.  Faster execution.  Rubygems
integrated.  Rails works perfectly.  I've been using 1.9 for years and
now I can't go back to the days without it.


So why there's  still 1.8.7?  It's also clear:  for system admins.  So
far 1.8.7 has  been adopted widely because it was a  state of art ruby
implementation  of the  day  it  was released.   Even  after you  stop
writing  software for  something,  it needs  bugfixes and  maintenance
releases.  For  ruby 1.8.7 , that's  what I'd been  offering for these
three years.


Now... I  know many of  you're still developing your  software against
1.8.7 in spite of its  dead-endedness.  Sooner or later the whole Ruby
community  will move  towards 1.9  and those  1.8.7-based  systems are
expected to become unmaintained.  I  don't like the situation.  I want
you and your system to be 1.9 ready.


So  to encourage  your moving  towards 1.9,  I think  I  should define
1.8.7's end-of-life to be at some point in the future.  I guess you're
not moving to 1.9 because 1.8 is (or at least seems to be) maintained.
Let's stop  it.  We will no longer  touch 1.8.7 in any  way once after
the EOL. right?


My current timeline (to be rescheduled) is:

- Normal maintenance (as it is today): provided until June 2012,
- Security fixes: provided until June 2013.

Give us your opinioms.


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