[ruby-core:96296] Ruby 2.7.0-rc1 Released

We are pleased to announce the release of Ruby 2.7.0-rc1.

A preview version is released to gather feedback for the final release
planned for December.
This rc1 is mainly released to confirm the compatibility of
keyword arguments.

It also introduces a number of new features and performance improvements,
most notably:

* Compaction GC
* Pattern Matching
* REPL improvement
* Separation of positional and keyword arguments

## Compaction GC

This release introduces Compaction GC which can defragment
a fragmented memory space.

Some multi-threaded Ruby programs may cause memory fragmentation,
leading to high memory usage and degraded speed.

The `GC.compact` method is introduced for compacting the heap.
This function compacts live objects in the heap so that fewer pages
may be used, and the heap may be more CoW friendly.
[[Feature #15626]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/15626)

## Pattern Matching [Experimental]

Pattern matching, a widely used feature in functional programming languages,
is introduced as an experimental feature.
[[Feature #14912]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14912)

It can traverse a given object and assign its value if it matches a pattern.

```ruby
require "json"

json = <<END
{
  "name": "Alice",
  "age": 30,
  "children": [{ "name": "Bob", "age": 2 }]
}
END

case JSON.parse(json, symbolize_names: true)
in {name: "Alice", children: [{name: "Bob", age: age}]}
  p age #=> 2
end
```

For more details, please see
[Pattern matching - New feature in Ruby
2.7](https://speakerdeck.com/k_tsj/pattern-matching-new-feature-in-ruby-2-dot-7).

## REPL improvement

`irb`, the bundled interactive environment (REPL; Read-Eval-Print-Loop),
now supports multi-line editing. It is powered by `reline`,
a `readline`-compatible pure Ruby implementation.
It also provides rdoc integration. In `irb` you can display the reference
for a given class, module, or method.
[[Feature #14683]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14683),
[[Feature #14787]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14787),
[[Feature #14918]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14918)

Besides, source lines shown at `binding.irb` and inspect results
for core-class objects are now colorized.

<video autoplay="autoplay" controls="controls" muted="muted"
width="576" height="259">
  <source src="https://cache.ruby-lang.org/pub/media/irb_improved_with_key_take2.mp4"
type="video/mp4">
</video>

## Separation of positional and keyword arguments

Automatic conversion of keyword arguments and positional arguments
is deprecated, and conversion will be removed in Ruby 3.
[[Feature #14183]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14183)

* When a method call passes a Hash at the last argument, and when it
  passes no keywords, and when the called method accepts keywords,
  a warning is emitted.  To continue treating the hash as keywords,
  add a double splat operator to avoid the warning and ensure
  correct behavior in Ruby 3.

  ```ruby
  def foo(key: 42); end; foo({key: 42})   # warned
  def foo(**kw);    end; foo({key: 42})   # warned
  def foo(key: 42); end; foo(**{key: 42}) # OK
  def foo(**kw);    end; foo(**{key: 42}) # OK
  ```

* When a method call passes keywords to a method that accepts keywords,
  but it does not pass enough required positional arguments, the
  keywords are treated as a final required positional argument, and
  a warning is emitted.  Pass the argument as a hash instead of keywords
  to avoid the warning and ensure correct behavior in Ruby 3.

  ```ruby
  def foo(h, **kw); end; foo(key: 42)      # warned
  def foo(h, key: 42); end; foo(key: 42)   # warned
  def foo(h, **kw); end; foo({key: 42})    # OK
  def foo(h, key: 42); end; foo({key: 42}) # OK
  ```

* When a method accepts specific keywords but not a keyword splat, and
  a hash or keywords splat is passed to the method that includes both
  Symbol and non-Symbol keys, the hash will continue to be split, and
  a warning will be emitted.  You will need to update the calling code
  to pass separate hashes to ensure correct behavior in Ruby 3.

  ```ruby
  def foo(h={}, key: 42); end; foo("key" => 43, key: 42)   # warned
  def foo(h={}, key: 42); end; foo({"key" => 43, key: 42}) # warned
  def foo(h={}, key: 42); end; foo({"key" => 43}, key: 42) # OK
  ```

* If a method does not accept keywords, and is called with keywords,
  the keywords are still treated as a positional hash, with no warning.
  This behavior will continue to work in Ruby 3.

  ```ruby
  def foo(opt={});  end; foo( key: 42 )   # OK
  ```

* Non-symbols are allowed as keyword argument keys if the method accepts
  arbitrary keywords.
  [[Feature #14183]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14183)

  ```ruby
  def foo(**kw); p kw; end; foo("str" => 1) #=> {"str"=>1}
  ```

* `**nil` is allowed in method definitions to explicitly mark
  that the method accepts no keywords. Calling such a method with keywords
  will result in an ArgumentError.
  [[Feature #14183]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14183)

  ```ruby
  def foo(h, **nil); end; foo(key: 1)       # ArgumentError
  def foo(h, **nil); end; foo(**{key: 1})   # ArgumentError
  def foo(h, **nil); end; foo("str" => 1)   # ArgumentError
  def foo(h, **nil); end; foo({key: 1})     # OK
  def foo(h, **nil); end; foo({"str" => 1}) # OK
  ```

* Passing an empty keyword splat to a method that does not accept keywords
  no longer passes an empty hash, unless the empty hash is necessary for
  a required parameter, in which case a warning will be emitted.
  Remove the double splat to continue passing a positional hash.
  [[Feature #14183]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14183)

  ```ruby
  h = {}; def foo(*a) a end; foo(**h) # []
  h = {}; def foo(a) a end; foo(**h)  # {} and warning
  h = {}; def foo(*a) a end; foo(h)   # [{}]
  h = {}; def foo(a) a end; foo(h)    # {}
  ```

NOTE: Too many deprecation warnings about keyword argument incompatibility
have been pointed out to be too verbose.  Currently, two possible solutions
are discussed; disabling deprecation warnings by default
([#16345](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16345))
or suppressing duplicated warnings
([#16289](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16289)).
The final decision is not made, but will be fixed by the official release.

## Other Notable New Features

* A method reference operator, `.:`, was introduced
  as an experimental feature in earlier previews, but was reverted.
  [[Feature #12125]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/12125),
  [[Feature #13581]]( https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/13581),
  [[Feature #16275]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16275)

* Numbered parameter as the default block parameter is introduced
  as an experimental feature.
  [[Feature #4475]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/4475)

* A beginless range is experimentally introduced.  It might not be
  as useful as an endless range, but would be good for DSL purposes.
  [[Feature #14799]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14799)

  ```ruby
  ary[..3]  # identical to ary[0..3]
  rel.where(sales: ..100)
  ```

* `Enumerable#tally` is added.  It counts the occurrence of each element.

  ```ruby
  ["a", "b", "c", "b"].tally
  #=> {"a"=>1, "b"=>2, "c"=>1}
  ```

* Calling a private method on `self` is now allowed.
  [[Feature #11297]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/11297),
  [[Feature #16123]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16123)

  ```ruby
  def foo
  end
  private :foo
  self.foo
  ```

* `Enumerator::Lazy#eager` is added.
  It generates a non-lazy enumerator from a lazy enumerator.
  [[Feature #15901]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/15901)

  ```ruby
  a = %w(foo bar baz)
  e = a.lazy.map {|x| x.upcase }.map {|x| x + "!" }.eager
  p e.class               #=> Enumerator
  p e.map {|x| x + "?" }  #=> ["FOO!?", "BAR!?", "BAZ!?"]
  ```

## Performance improvements

* JIT [Experimental]

  * JIT-ed code is recompiled to less-optimized code when an
    optimization assumption is invalidated.

  * Method inlining is performed when a method is considered as pure.
    This optimization is still experimental and many methods are
    NOT considered as pure yet.

  * The default value of `--jit-min-calls` is changed from 5 to 10,000.

  * The default value of `--jit-max-cache` is changed from 1,000 to 100.

* ~~`Symbol#to_s`, `Module#name`, `true.to_s`, `false.to_s`,
  and `nil.to_s` now always return a frozen String.
  The returned String is always the same for a given object.
  [Experimental]
  [[Feature #16150]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16150)~~ reverted

* The performance of `CGI.escapeHTML` is improved.
  [GH-2226](https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/2226)

* The performance of Monitor and MonitorMixin is improved.
  [[Feature #16255]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16255)

## Other notable changes since 2.6

* Some standard libraries are updated.
  * Bundler 2.1.0.pre.3
    ([History](https://github.com/bundler/bundler/blob/2-1-stable/CHANGELOG.md#210pre3-november-8-2019))
  * RubyGems 3.1.0.pre.3
    ([History](https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems/blob/3.1/History.txt))
  * CSV 3.1.2
    ([NEWS](https://github.com/ruby/csv/blob/v3.1.2/NEWS.md))
  * Racc 1.4.15
  * REXML 3.2.3
    ([NEWS](https://github.com/ruby/rexml/blob/v3.2.3/NEWS.md))
  * RSS 0.2.8
    ([NEWS](https://github.com/ruby/rss/blob/v0.2.8/NEWS.md))
  * StringScanner 1.0.3
  * Some other libraries that have no original version are also updated.

* Promote stdlib to default gems
  * The following default gems were published on rubygems.org
    * benchmark
    * cgi
    * delegate
    * getoptlong
    * net-pop
    * net-smtp
    * open3
    * pstore
    * singleton
  * The following default gems were only promoted at ruby-core,
    but not yet published on rubygems.org.
    * monitor
    * observer
    * timeout
    * tracer
    * uri
    * yaml

* `Proc.new` and `proc` with no block in a method called with a block
   is warned now.

* `lambda` with no block in a method called with a block errs.

* Update Unicode version and Emoji version from 11.0.0 to 12.0.0.
  [[Feature #15321]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/15321)

* Update Unicode version to 12.1.0,
  adding support for U+32FF SQUARE ERA NAME REIWA.
  [[Feature #15195]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/15195)

* `Date.jisx0301`, `Date#jisx0301`, and `Date.parse` support the
  new Japanese era.
  [[Feature #15742]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/15742)

* Require compilers to support C99
  [[Misc #15347]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/15347)
  * Details of our dialect:
    <https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/projects/ruby-trunk/wiki/C99>

* ~~`Regexp#match{?}` with `nil` raises TypeError as String, Symbol.
  [[Feature #13083]](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/13083)~~ reverted

3895 files changed, 213426 insertions(+), 96934 deletions(-)

See [NEWS](https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/v2_7_0_rc1/NEWS)
or [commit logs](https://github.com/ruby/ruby/compare/v2_6_0...v2_7_0_rc1)
for more details.

With those changes, [4163 files changed, 226280 insertions(+), 99449
deletions(-)](https://github.com/ruby/ruby/compare/v2_6_0...v2_7_0_rc1)
since Ruby 2.6.0!
Enjoy programming with Ruby 2.7!

## Download

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