Should a newbie learn 1.6 or 1.8?

[Steve Cooper]

I'm just starting to learn Ruby, and I've purchased Ruby in a Nutshell
and Programming Ruby. Both are based on version 1.6. Which version
should I use as I learn the language? 1.6 will correspond to the
documentation I have. If I installed 1.8, I could see spending time
dealing with situations where my program doesn't work and after a lot
of head-scratching I eventually figure out that the reason is the new
behavior of 1.8. Any recommendations?

I kind of wish there were some labels I could print out and stick on
the appropriate pages of "Programming Ruby" that said "This has
changed in version 1.8."

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Florian Gross]

I'm just starting to learn Ruby, and I've purchased Ruby in a Nutshell
and Programming Ruby. Both are based on version 1.6. Which version
should I use as I learn the language? 1.6 will correspond to the
documentation I have. If I installed 1.8, I could see spending time
dealing with situations where my program doesn't work and after a lot
of head-scratching I eventually figure out that the reason is the new
behavior of 1.8. Any recommendations?

I'd suggest using 1.8 because changes usually shouldn't be all that
critical.

The good thing about 1.8 are all the subtle enhancements that you would
have expected to be in 1.6.8 anyway. If you still run into compatibility
problems you can always ask on this mailing list.

Another bonus is that you'll likely be able to run code posted on this
mailing list and other where with the new version.

I kind of wish there were some labels I could print out and stick on
the appropriate pages of "Programming Ruby" that said "This has
changed in version 1.8."

http://dev.faeriemud.org/changes-1.8.0.html and
http://whytheluckystiff.net/articles/2003/08/04/rubyOneEightOh will list
some of the nice new features, but they aren't complete unfortunately.

You can also always consult the change log which comes with Ruby.

Thanks,
Steve

Regards,
Florian Gross