On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 2:47 AM, Bill Kelly <billk / cts.com> wrote:
>
> From: "7stud --" <bbxx789_05ss / yahoo.com>
>>
>> Cali Wildman wrote:
>>>
>>> So basically 1.8.6 (and prior version) code will work fine in 1.8.7
>>> without changes,
>>
>> It doesn't sound like that is the case:
>>
>> http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/178354#new
>
> Could you be more specific?  ¨Âô§öåòù ìïîç ôèòåáä>
> My understanding is that Cali's statement should be correct.
>
> Code that works on 1.8.6 should work on 1.8.7. But not
> necessarily vice-versa.)

It's actually not true in general.  There is lots of old 1.8.6 based
code, for example Rails applications running on not-so old versions of
Rails which won't run on 1.8.7.

If you really go back and read that long thread, I think you'll find
that while later versions of ruby libraries like Rails have made
changes to accommodate the changes made in 1.8.7, that was
accomplished by changing the code, not by changes to Ruby 1.8.7. So
it's very likely that, say an old Rails 1.2.x (or even I think a Rails
2.x (for some value of x < the version which was 1.8.7 compatible)
won't run or won't run correctly under 1.8.7.

If we're talking about new code, then yes, 1.8.7 vs. 1.8.6 is at best
a minor issue, but if we are talking about waking up some Rip Van
Winkle application, some assembly will be required. And some  'ports'
of some Rails applications between Rails versions is a non-trivial
exercise.  One company I worked for backed out of migrating its main
app from Rails 2.1 to 2.2 because the rework cost more than it was
worth.  Now this is a Rails issue rather than a Ruby issue per se, but
it's all part of the larger picture.

The real pain of having 1.8.6 and 1.8.7 share the same minor version
number is that downstream 'vendors' like the linux packagers see this
as an inconsequential change, they have ONE ruby 1.8 package, and when
they started making this contain 1.8.7 rather than 1.8.6, and owners
of those Rip Van Winkle apps found things broke when they (or their
hosting provider) updated the packaged version of ruby.

That's why as a result of that thread, the folks at Engine Yard agreed
to continue to maintain a Ruby 1.8.6 version.  But it still doesn't
solve the re-packaging of 'compatible' versions for less aware users
and hosting providers.
-- 
Rick DeNatale

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