Should I learn Ruby 1.8 or 1.9?

Question

Hi, I've started to learn Ruby recently, and was wondering about which version to learn. I've got Matz's Ruby book so I have some idea of the differences, and by default I'd go for 1.9 because of the performance, working with characters, and just because there's little point learning something which will soon be outdated!

However, I've had some problems with 1.9.1 with things not working properly due to gems not being updated for 1.9. I also wanted to use rcov for coder coverage, which seems to be the only tool around but it doesn't work for 1.9. And I also just read this blog post about someone switching from Ruby altogether for similar reasons.

A similar question has been asked here before, but that was a few months ago now and things might have changed. I'm not doing anything specific with Ruby at the moment, but I plan to write a web app soon, probably using Rails, if that makes any difference.

Thanks

Answer 1

The difference between the 2 versions of the language is irrelevant from the beginner's perspective. You should probably use 1.8 as it works with most gems you'll be using, and you'll not run into errors that are not your fault, stumbling your learning process. When the time comes you will easily switch to 1.9.

Answer 2

I agree with clyfe with respect to library usage. It's also more clear why the changes in 1.9 exist after understanding 1.8.

I would also suggest using 1.8 with Rails since it has been proven to be more stable and compatible. (As a side note, I would also stick with Rails 2.x.)