From: Dido Sevilla <dido.sevilla@...>
Date: 2005-04-11T18:48:39+09:00
Subject: YAML on Ruby 1.8.1 and Ruby 1.8.2

I've written several programs that use YAML to store their
configuration files, and I generally run them on Ruby 1.8.2.
Occasionally we have a setup with a Ruby 1.8.1 or older version around
and noticed that the YAML module on these older versions of Ruby
behaves differently from that of 1.8.2. In particular, this YAML
string:

"--- :abc"

produces different results from 1.8.1 and 1.8.2.  Under 1.8.2, I get
the expected behavior, and

YAML::load("--- :abc")  => :abc

However, under 1.8.1:

YAML:load("--- :abc") => ":abc"

This totally breaks my config file scheme and is incredibly annoying.
Apparently, copying the YAML module from 1.8.2 to 1.8.1 doesn't fix
this behavior. I've had to write a short function to fix this brain
damage, but I wonder if there is a better way.