What is the difference between Ruby 1.8 and Ruby 1.9

Question

I'm not clear on the differences between the "current" version of Ruby (1.8) and the "new" version (1.9). Is there an "easy" or a "simple" explanation of the differences and why it is so different?

Answer 1

Sam Ruby has a cool slideshow that outline the differences.

In the interest of bringing this information inline for easier reference, and in case the link goes dead in the abstract future, here's an overview of Sam's slides. The slideshow is less overwhelming to review, but having it all laid out in a list like this is also helpful.

Ruby 1.9 - Major Features

• Performance
• Threads/Fibers
• Encoding/Unicode
• gems is (mostly) built-in now
• if statements do not introduce scope in Ruby.

What's changed?

Single character strings.

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):001:0> ?c
=> "c"

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> ?c
=> 99

---

String index.

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):001:0> "cat"[1]
=> "a"

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> "cat"[1]
=> 97

---

{"a","b"} No Longer Supported

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):002:0> {1,2}
SyntaxError: (irb):2: syntax error, unexpected ',', expecting tASSOC

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> {1,2}
=> {1=>2}

Action: Convert to {1 => 2}

---

Array.to_s Now Contains Punctuation

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):001:0> [1,2,3].to_s
=> "[1, 2, 3]"

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> [1,2,3].to_s
=> "123"

Action: Use .join instead

---

Colon No Longer Valid In When Statements

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):001:0> case 'a'; when /\w/: puts 'word'; end
SyntaxError: (irb):1: syntax error, unexpected ':',
expecting keyword_then or ',' or ';' or '\n'

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> case 'a'; when /\w/: puts 'word'; end
word

Action: Use semicolon, then, or newline

---

Block Variables Now Shadow Local Variables

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):001:0> i=0; [1,2,3].each {|i|}; i
=> 0
irb(main):002:0> i=0; for i in [1,2,3]; end; i
=> 3

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> i=0; [1,2,3].each {|i|}; i
=> 3

---

Hash.index Deprecated

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):001:0> {1=>2}.index(2)
(irb):18: warning: Hash#index is deprecated; use Hash#key
=> 1
irb(main):002:0> {1=>2}.key(2)
=> 1

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> {1=>2}.index(2)
=> 1

Action: Use Hash.key

---

Fixnum.to_sym Now Gone

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):001:0> 5.to_sym
NoMethodError: undefined method 'to_sym' for 5:Fixnum

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> 5.to_sym
=> nil

(Cont'd) Ruby 1.9

# Find an argument value by name or index.
def [](index)
  lookup(index.to_sym)
end

svn.ruby-lang.org/repos/ruby/trunk/lib/rake.rb

---

Hash Keys Now Unordered

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):001:0> {:a=>"a", :c=>"c", :b=>"b"}
=> {:a=>"a", :c=>"c", :b=>"b"}

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> {:a=>"a", :c=>"c", :b=>"b"}
=> {:a=>"a", :b=>"b", :c=>"c"}

Order is insertion order

---

Stricter Unicode Regular Expressions

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):001:0> /\x80/u
SyntaxError: (irb):2: invalid multibyte escape: /\x80/

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> /\x80/u
=> /\x80/u

---

tr and Regexp Now Understand Unicode

Ruby 1.9

unicode(string).tr(CP1252_DIFFERENCES, UNICODE_EQUIVALENT).
  gsub(INVALID_XML_CHAR, REPLACEMENT_CHAR).
  gsub(XML_PREDEFINED) {|c| PREDEFINED[c.ord]}

---

pack and unpack

Ruby 1.8.6

def xchr(escape=true)
  n = XChar::CP1252[self] || self
  case n when *XChar::VALID
    XChar::PREDEFINED[n] or 
      (n>128 ? n.chr : (escape ? "&##{n};" : [n].pack('U*')))
  else
    Builder::XChar::REPLACEMENT_CHAR
  end
end
unpack('U*').map {|n| n.xchr(escape)}.join

---

BasicObject More Brutal Than BlankSlate

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):001:0> class C < BasicObject; def f; Math::PI; end; end; C.new.f
NameError: uninitialized constant C::Math

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):001:0> require 'blankslate'
=> true
irb(main):002:0> class C < BlankSlate; def f; Math::PI; end; end; C.new.f
=> 3.14159265358979

Action: Use ::Math::PI

---

Delegation Changes

Ruby 1.9

irb(main):002:0> class C < SimpleDelegator; end
=> nil
irb(main):003:0> C.new('').class
=> String

Ruby 1.8.6

irb(main):002:0> class C < SimpleDelegator; end
=> nil
irb(main):003:0> C.new('').class
=> C
irb(main):004:0>

Defect 17700