From: David Garamond <lists@...6.isreserved.com>
Date: 2004-07-10T01:41:36+09:00
Subject: Re: speeding ruby development

Friedrich Dominicus wrote:
> Well I'm very much suprised that most seem to appreciate Ruby 2. I
> have a very ungut feeling about it all has the "features" of the
> second system which Brooks describes in book the mythical man month.

I disagree. What features exactly do you see as the signs of second 
system syndrome?

Basically Ruby2 tries to fix some design mistakes of Ruby 1.x and 
improves a bit on its syntax. (Syntax matters!) Features like keyword 
argument has been requested for years. I don't see Ruby2 trying to add 
bells & whistles or include the kitchen sink.

> Do I have to remind you of the big troubles from Perl 4.x to Perl 5.x

So do you prefer to use Perl4? (Not me, thanks). And anyway, what "big" 
troubles are there? Perl5 is very much backward compatible than Perl4.

> and then again from 5.x somewhat to 5.8? 

Again, what are the issues do you experience? Virtually all my Perl 
scripts run fine between 5.005, 5.6.x, and 5.8.

 > How long are they talking
> about Parrot now? 3 years? 
> 
> Oh it's doable of course, but it will contain tons of bugs from the
> beginning and that will last at least up to version 2.2 to shake out
> most of them. Is that really worth it?

I'd say yes. A language that doesn't evolve is a dead language.

> What I especially dislike is breaking backwards compatiblity. Nothing
> is more annoying then coming back to a software you have written and
> change it over and over again just because a new version of the
> Interpreter/Compiler was shipped.

You can always stick to the old version or the stable branch.

Perl 5.8.x is still being mantained while Perl6/Parrot/5.9.x is being 
developed.

Apache 1.3.x is still being maintained even though Apache2 is the 
recommended version to use.

Ruby 1.8.x will still be maintained while Ruby 1.9/Rite is developed.

If you don't want Rite, you can always stick with Ruby 1.8.

-- 
dave