From: Jonathon Brenner Date: 2009-02-04T04:00:37+09:00 Subject: Re: 1.9.1? Not all books. Take a look at Programming 1.9 by Pragmatic Programmers (http://preview.tinyurl.com/7xfvk7). They constantly update their PDF books to keep in step with the latest changes to Ruby. Good luck. 2009/2/3 Zayd Abdullah > > So since these changes have been made, will us noobs be hurting ourselves > starting off learning 1.8.6? Books to learn from are teaching from 1.8. > > thanks > > 2009/2/3 Radosław Bułat > > > On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 6:14 PM, yuckysocks > > wrote: > > > Hi there, > > > > > > I'm about 2 weeks into my learning attempt at Ruby (1.8.6 is what I've > > > cut my teeth on). > > > > > > Can someone give me a rational assessment of the differences between > > > the two language versions, and which one I should continue to pursue? > > > > > > I'm mainly using Ruby with Rails to make basic webapps for my own > > > edification. > > > > > > Thanks! > > > > > > Alex > > > > > > > > > > Very short answer: > > - new virtual machine (previously just AST interpreter) > > - memory diet for some objects (Object, Array, String etc) > > - improved speed (see > > > > http://antoniocangiano.com/2008/12/09/the-great-ruby-shootout-december-2008/ > > ) > > - added character encoding support (previously works only with raw bytes) > > - new syntax for hashes with symbols as keys, hashes preserve keys order > > - many changes to API (improved, added consistency, removed deprecated code > > etc) > > - changes in language semantics (for example block arguments now works > > (almost?) the same as method arguments) > > - new lambda literal: -> > > - external iterators (class Enumerator) now are built in > > - new concept such a fiber (class Fiber) > > - native threads (but with GIL like python) > > - rubygems, rake are built in > > - minitest supercedes old test/unit > > > > > > -- > > Pozdrawiam > > > > Radosław Bułat > > http://radarek.jogger.pl - mój blog > > > >