From: Jon Forums Date: 2011-07-08T23:21:11+09:00 Subject: [ruby-core:37882] [Backport87 - Feature #4996] About 1.8.7 EOL Issue #4996 has been updated by Jon Forums. > 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? > ...SNIP... > Give us your opinioms. While I've moved to 1.9 exclusively on my Arch and Ubuntu systems and am pleased, on Windows the performance differences between 1.8.7 and 1.9.x are noticeable enough to continue to be a problem that causes 1.8.7 to remain attractive and slow 1.9 adoption. While the root cause may turn out to be excessive stat's, I suspect current Encoding and IO implementations on Windows also play a part. While I understand that Windows (MinGW, MSVC, etc) is a "best efforts" supported platform, I remain surprised as to why this fundamental issue with MRI hasn't been prioritized and resourced. Specifically, I'm remain surprised for the following reasons: * ruby-core has knowledgeable developers (Usa, Nobu, Luis, et al) with Windows expertise who are responsive to Windows-specific issues. * Demand for Ruby on Windows is self-evident and we see that rubyforge believes there's been ~5.92 million downloads of the legacy One-Click and RubyInstaller packages. * RubyGems works well on Windows and that team is responsive to Windows-specific issues. * Many gem authors (Nokogiri, Thin, etc) are building (1.8/1.9) binary gems that work quite well with the MinGW-built RubyInstaller. Where binary gems don't yet exist, many times our DevKit from the RubyInstaller project allows Windows users to build from source. * Both the JRuby and Rubinius implementations appear to be placing more emphasis on ensuring their implementations work well on Windows. Do not perceive my feedback to be harsh or overly critical as I've been very pleased that my Windows-specific issues have been quickly addressed in the past. However, until ruby-core realizes this Windows-specific 1.9 performance issue is critical *and* prioritizes it as important *and* resources it appropriately, the transition from MRI 1.8 to MRI 1.9 for Windows users will be hampered. Furthermore, if JRuby and Rubinius continue to prioritize Windows and MRI doesn't, MRI *could* quickly become irrelevant for Windows users. While I don't truly believe this, it does have a non-zero probability of occurring if we do nothing and stay the current course. Bottom line: move forward with the 1.8.7 EOL timeline *and* jump in and focus resources on identifying and fixing the root cause of Windows 1.9 performance issues. Jon ---------------------------------------- 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. -- http://redmine.ruby-lang.org