I updated to revision 16403 and now compiling and running ruby1.9 
works [thanks Nobu].

I get the errors below running: make test -- I haven't been working 
with 1.9 before and am not certain just what error is being reported 
below.  Is the failure that ends the tests below in sample/eval.rb?

$ make test
./miniruby -I./lib -I.ext/common -I./- -r./ext/purelib.rb  -I. 
-rrbconfig ./tool/compile_prelude.rb \
		./prelude.rb ./enc/prelude.rb ./gem_prelude.rb prelude.c.new
./tool/ifchange "prelude.c" "prelude.c.new"
prelude.c unchanged

sample/test.rb:assignment 
.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
sample/test.rb:condition ..
sample/test.rb:if/unless ...
sample/test.rb:case .....
sample/test.rb:while/until ........
sample/test.rb:exception .......
sample/test.rb:array .......................................
sample/test.rb:hash ...........................
sample/test.rb:iterator 
...............................................................................................................
sample/test.rb:float 
................................................................................
sample/test.rb:bignum ...............................
sample/test.rb:string & char 
..............................................................
sample/test.rb:assignment ..........
sample/test.rb:call ......
sample/test.rb:proc .........
sample/test.rb:signal FF
sample/test.rb:eval .............../sample/test.rb:1683:in `block in 
<main>': Interrupt (RuntimeError)
	from ./sample/test.rb:18:in `write'
	from ./sample/test.rb:18:in `print'
	from ./sample/test.rb:18:in `test_ok'
	from ./sample/test.rb:1720:in `<main>'
not ok signal 1 -- ./sample/test.rb:1681:in `<main>'
not ok signal 2 -- ./sample/test.rb:1692:in `<main>'
test failed
make: *** [test-sample] Error 1