From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2009-02-12T06:13:45+09:00
Subject: Re: If you are unhappy with the direction of Ruby 1.8.7+, respond

On 11.02.2009 18:27, James Gray wrote:
> On Feb 11, 2009, at 11:10 AM, Gregory Brown wrote:
> 
>> I am setting up two threads in the hopes that we can see names
>> attached to opinions about the decision to break backwards
>> compatibility between Ruby 1.8.6 and Ruby 1.8.7+
>> This one is for those who wish that Ruby 1.8 would go *back* to being
>> 1.8.6 compatible in Ruby 1.8.8.
> 
> I'm bothered by the new versioning scheme.
> 
> The new releases involve big changes and even if they are fully  
> backwards compatible about what they will run, they are still creating  
> pretty big compatibility gaps.  Code using any of the new 1.8.7  
> features won't run on 1.8.6 and lower.

Well, but this is usual, isn't it?  If you want exact 1.8.6 then take 
1.8.6.  Or do you see changes in the third number as sole bug fix changes?

>  It sounds as if 1.8.8 intends  
> to take this farther, so code written to that won't work in the  
> different 1.8.7 branch or the earlier 1.8.6 and lower stuff.

But if I understand this correctly, 1.8.6 code will also run on 1.8.7 
and later.

>  Thus I  
> feel we now have three different versions of Ruby 1.8 on the table  
> (counting the not yet released 1.8.8).

That seems to be the case.  Maybe 1.8.7 should really have been 1.9.0 
but that version is taken already...  IMHO the changes in 1.9 are big 
enough to warrant a 2.x but I guess Matz et al. have put quite a bit of 
thought into the version numbers - so maybe we should hear that before 
we make any judgments about what fits in a release and what not.

Kind regards

	robert