[ANN] MacRuby 0.4

[Laurent Sansonetti]

Hi,

After several months of development and some slight delays, MacRuby
0.4 is now available. Get it here while it's still hot!

MacRuby is a version of Ruby 1.9, ported to run directly on top of Mac
OS X core technologies such as the Objective-C common runtime and
garbage collector, and the CoreFoundation framework. While still a
work in progress, it is the goal of MacRuby to enable the creation of
full-fledged Mac OS X applications which do not sacrifice performance
in order to enjoy the benefits of using Ruby.

You can learn more about MacRuby, and download a binary installer,
from the website:

http://ruby.macosforge.org

Or about this release more specifically, on our blog:

http://www.macruby.org/post/macruby-04

Enjoy,

Laurent

 

[Chuck Remes]

MacRuby is a version of Ruby 1.9, ported to run directly on top of Mac
OS X core technologies such as the Objective-C common runtime and
garbage collector, and the CoreFoundation framework. While still a
work in progress, it is the goal of MacRuby to enable the creation of
full-fledged Mac OS X applications which do not sacrifice performance
in order to enjoy the benefits of using Ruby.

You can learn more about MacRuby, and download a binary installer,
from the website:

http://ruby.macosforge.org

Awesome news! Thanks for your hard work.

cr

 

[Diego.Virasoro]

Hi,
great news! Thanks a lot.

Any idea when MacRuby 0.5 should be out? Do you think its performance
will be approx as the official Ruby or is that still a long way away?

Apologies if this sounds "ungrateful". I think what you are doing is
really great, it's just that as soon as it's comparable to the
official Ruby, I am planning to move to it for my own projects.

Thank you

Diego

 

[Kevin Walzer]

Laurent,

MacRuby is a version of Ruby 1.9, ported to run directly on top of Mac
OS X core technologies such as the Objective-C common runtime and
garbage collector, and the CoreFoundation framework. While still a
work in progress, it is the goal of MacRuby to enable the creation of
full-fledged Mac OS X applications which do not sacrifice performance
in order to enjoy the benefits of using Ruby.

MacRuby is an interesting project. I see that it is installable as a
framework in /Library/Frameworks. I am curious about one thing: have you
thought about contributing the build/configure bits that allow MacRuby
to be built as a framework back to the main Ruby developers, so that
mainline Ruby itself can be built as a framework? Apple's system build
of Ruby builds in this fashion as well. However, as far as I can tell,
these kinds of builds are not supported by mainline Ruby on OS X.

It would be great if one could download the current stable version of
Ruby, and run "./configure --enable-framework" and have everything build
and install in /Library/Frameworks, perhaps with symlinks in
/usr/local/bin for the executables. Python and Tcl on the Mac already
have this capability, and since it appears the work to get Ruby set up
as a (non-system) framework has already been done, it should just be a
matter of getting it fed upstream and committed.

The benefits of this for developers are numerous. It would build Ruby in
a Mac-standard fashion, and it would make deploying standalone
applications that rely on Ruby a simpler process.

Thoughts or suggestions about this are appreciated.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[John T.]

Hi,

After several months of development and some slight delays, MacRuby
0.4 is now available. Get it here while it's still hot!

Hm. I guess I missed the bit where it says that 0.4 is Intel only. Ran
the installer on a Powerbook G4 then tried using the 'macirb' command
only to get:

-bash: /usr/local/bin/macirb:
/Library/Frameworks/MacRuby.framework/Versions/0.4/usr/bin/macruby: bad
interpreter: Bad CPU type in executable


Guess I have to see if I can get it built for non-intel.

 

[Tony Arcieri]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

Hi, one thing I've been particularly curious about in regard to MacRuby...

I've noticed the "autozone" garbage collector for Objective C has been
released as open source:

http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/10.5.5/autozone-77.1/

How difficult would it to be to use this as the garbage collector for
MacRuby? I'm particularly interested in MacRuby on the iPhone... does open
source autozone actually help, or do you need it as a cohesive part of the
Objective C runtime?

On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 12:51 AM, Laurent Sansonetti <

 

[Rick DeNatale]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

Hi, one thing I've been particularly curious about in regard to MacRuby...

I've noticed the "autozone" garbage collector for Objective C has been
released as open source:

http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/10.5.5/autozone-77.1/

How difficult would it to be to use this as the garbage collector for
MacRuby?

If you read the readme.txt I think you'll find that it IS being used by
MacRuby. In fact as I understand it autozone is a spin-off from the MacRuby
project which Laurent factored out for more general use.

--
Rick DeNatale

Blog: http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale
WWR: http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale

 

[Roger Pack]

MacRuby is an interesting project. I see that it is installable as a
framework in /Library/Frameworks. I am curious about one thing: have you
thought about contributing the build/configure bits that allow MacRuby
to be built as a framework back to the main Ruby developers, so that
mainline Ruby itself can be built as a framework? Apple's system build
of Ruby builds in this fashion as well. However, as far as I can tell,
these kinds of builds are not supported by mainline Ruby on OS X.

It would be interesting if there were a port of macruby to vanilla Linux
so the rest of us could try it and see if the GC is indeed faster
Anyway thanks for the hard work.

-=r

 

[Ryan Davis]

It would be interesting if there were a port of macruby to vanilla
Linux
so the rest of us could try it and see if the GC is indeed faster
Anyway thanks for the hard work.

I'm sure patches are welcome...

 

[Tony Arcieri]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

If you read the readme.txt I think you'll find that it IS being used by
MacRuby. In fact as I understand it autozone is a spin-off from the
MacRuby
project which Laurent factored out for more general use.

I see, my apologies.

Does this mean MacRuby could potentially work on iPhones now?

 

[Rob Biedenharn]

I see, my apologies.

Does this mean MacRuby could potentially work on iPhones now?

At RubyConf2008, Laurent's response to that kind of inquiry was: "Next
question."

-Rob

Rob Biedenharn http://agileconsultingllc.com
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Tony Arcieri]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

wrote:

At RubyConf2008, Laurent's response to that kind of inquiry was: "Next
question."

Unfortunate. What is the problem if not the garbage collector?

 

[Rob Biedenharn]

Unfortunate. What is the problem if not the garbage collector?

I've always assumed it was more of a legal problem than a technical
one. ;-)

-Rob

Rob Biedenharn http://agileconsultingllc.com
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Florian Gilcher]

Unfortunate. What is the problem if not the garbage collector?

Memory consumption, waste of processing power, basically: the question
whether it is not a waste of time.

Regards,
Florian

--
Florian Gilcher

smtp: (e-mail address removed)
jabber: (e-mail address removed)
gpg: 533148E2

 

[Laurent Sansonetti]

Hi Diego,

Hi,
great news! Thanks a lot.

Any idea when MacRuby 0.5 should be out? Do you think its performance
will be approx as the official Ruby or is that still a long way away?

Apologies if this sounds "ungrateful". I think what you are doing is
really great, it's just that as soon as it's comparable to the
official Ruby, I am planning to move to it for my own projects.

I recommend to subscribe to the macruby-devel [1] mailing list if you
want to track the project's progress. We do not provide any release
date yet, it will be released "when it will be done"

Laurent

[1] http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/macruby-devel

 

[Laurent Sansonetti]

Hi Kevin,

Laurent,




MacRuby is an interesting project. I see that it is installable as a
framework in /Library/Frameworks. I am curious about one thing: have you
thought about contributing the build/configure bits that allow MacRuby to be
built as a framework back to the main Ruby developers, so that mainline Ruby
itself can be built as a framework? Apple's system build of Ruby builds in
this fashion as well. However, as far as I can tell, these kinds of builds
are not supported by mainline Ruby on OS X.

It would be great if one could download the current stable version of Ruby,
and run "./configure --enable-framework" and have everything build and
install in /Library/Frameworks, perhaps with symlinks in /usr/local/bin for
the executables. Python and Tcl on the Mac already have this capability, and
since it appears the work to get Ruby set up as a (non-system) framework has
already been done, it should just be a matter of getting it fed upstream and
committed.

The benefits of this for developers are numerous. It would build Ruby in a
Mac-standard fashion, and it would make deploying standalone applications
that rely on Ruby a simpler process.

I wanted to contribute a "--enable-framework" option but I did not
find the time yet to do it. If someone is interested, you can find how
we build Ruby as a framework on Mac OS X here:

http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/10.5.6/ruby-67.4/

(It is not very beautiful but it works.)

Laurent

 

[Laurent Sansonetti]

Hi John,

Hm. I guess I missed the bit where it says that 0.4 is Intel only. Ran
the installer on a Powerbook G4 then tried using the 'macirb' command
only to get:

-bash: /usr/local/bin/macirb:
/Library/Frameworks/MacRuby.framework/Versions/0.4/usr/bin/macruby: bad
interpreter: Bad CPU type in executable

I forgot to mention that the installer does not support PPC machines.
It is still possible to build the sources for PPC, though.

The following page has some information:

http://www.macruby.org/trac/wiki/InstallingMacRuby

HTH,

Laurent