Ruby 1.9.1 Preview 1 is out

The path to a stable Ruby 1.9 has been long. Almost a year ago, 1.9.0 was released. This turned out to have been less than stable. The core library has grown by many hundreds of methods since then. And, probably more significantly, people have started using 1.9 for real, and they've discovered rough edges that needed to be fixed. In particular, the multinationalization support, which is incredibly ambitious, turned out to be hard to use for library writers. James Edward Gray II was probably the first to bump into this as he updated his FasterCSV library (now part of core Ruby) to handle any encoding supported by Ruby. His problems lead to a lot of discussion, and eventually to an entirely new concept inside the interpreter. And as a result, the core team have decided to slip the release of 1.9.1 by at least a month while they investigate other encoding-related issues lurking in the libraries.

In the meantime, a 1.9.1 preview has been released. Details are here.

If you are the maintainer for any publicly available Ruby code (be it a Gem, an application, or whatever) I strongly urge you to download this preview. You'll be doing the community a great service in two ways. First, the various incompatibilities between 1.9 and 1.8 mean that there's a chance that your code may not work without some tweaks. Making those changes now will help others using your code. As importantly, by using 1.9.1 for real, with real code, you'll potentially discover other rough edges. Reporting these back through ruby-core or RedMine will help the Ruby developers further hone the interpreter.

Now, all this delay leaves me with a problem. The new 1.9-specific PickAxe is now content complete. Some people have been waiting for it for 10 months. And I have to decide: should I hold on for the official 1.9.1 release (which will be, at the earliest, at the end of January 2009) or should I send it to the printers? Let me know what you think.

Comments

[Ryan McGeary]

I think the PDF book suffices until you're ready to send the paper book to the printers. I'm fine with waiting. I'm not even sure why I order the dead-tree versions anymore. I use the PDF versions for everything. Must be nostalgia.

[Michael Penrow]

I think you should wait for the printed book. I'm fine with the pdf version.

[peterb]

Please be patient and wait. We need an authoritative version that will last years. We have all been waiting, but we will wait longer.

p.s. in the meantime you can re-read K&R's C Programming Language for additional inspiration. ;-)

[Darrin Eden]

Considering Ruby's past release complications I'd suggest acting conservatively and holding off until a known-good is in the wild.

[Oscar Del Ben]

I've ordered the beta book when it came out. I think it's not a problem to wait for a complete version of the paper book. I think it is better to wait a month and have a complete book on ruby 1.9.

[Jim Lindley]

Wait and be definitive, especially since the PDF is available and useful today.

My Programming Ruby 2nd edition is dirty and dog-eared from much use. I'd like to never hesitate to grab the 3rd edition off the shelf, too.

[Ant Ramm]

I'd definitely rather wait until 1.9.1 is out.

[Nathan Youngman]

While I don't how much the coming standard library changes will impact your book, I agree, it's best to wait, at least until the RC. Since we have the PDF already, it's really no problem.

[Dominik Maehl]

Hi, I've ordered the PDF/Paper-Combo and will happily wait for an version of the paper book which incorporates 1.9.1.

[Chris McGrath]

Another +1 for waiting.

[Bil Kleb]

Wait to paper publish.

[Mike Oligny]

I agree, please incorporate the latest changes into the book.

[Stephan]

Like others I'd rather see a printed version that really matches the final version of 1.9.1 and am entirely peased with the PDF for now.

[Patrick]

Yup, wait... for now the PDF is fine.

[Diego Plentz]

I think you should wait for the printed book, too.

[Observer]

Please hold on. A few more weeks won't matter.

[mark]

Personally I do not care about the PDF. I hate to read books in front of a computer. I am really much more a "book" guy so the printed version is what interests me more personally, and I have no problem at all to wait. ;)

[Tim Hunter]

I have the PDF and I support a Ruby extension. I agree with everybody else that it's best to wait.

[Victor Costan]

Please wait until Ruby 1.9.1-final comes out, and perhaps keep waiting for a bit afterward to make sure it stays final.

I am using the PDF with an ebook reader, but (1) I don't want people learning the wrong things and writing bad code and (2) I think you'll lose some motivation once the printed version comes out :)

Thanks for the awesomeness and patience! I'm sure that waiting so long to release this book hasn't been easy!

[Hugo]

I suggest you hold a little more so the book will live longer.

[Verbus Counts]

Another vote to wait.

[DrMark]

I add my vote to the "wait" camp. I think having a book with 1.9.1 in it will be much more beneficial. The PDF has been working nicely so far.

Maybe the extra time could be used for another screen cast or two :)

Keep up the great work!

[A_V_I]

I am fine with waiting for 1.9.1 changes (even in the printed book). Reasons are simple:
- PDF might be easily updated and regenerated
- but to have a book which is outdated almost from the first date...
- and 1.9.1 (hope) would be a major thing for at least a year

[Markus Jais]

I agree with many others on waiting until 1.9.1 will be final an released.

[James Edward Gray II]

I agree that we should wait. I think O'Reilly showed how important this is with their very premature release of The Ruby Programming Language.