To his Ruby 1.8 vs. 1.9 question: the difference isn't huge, and I don't think we'll see a split. You get fibers (coroutines); new hash syntax, like User.create

To his Ruby 1.8 vs. 1.9 question: the difference isn't huge, and I don't think we'll see a split. You get fibers (coroutines); new hash syntax, like User.create(name: "David", address: "123 Fake St."), Enumerators, and lots of little changes. Ruby 1.9 programs should look pretty much like Ruby 1.8 programs for the most part. The more likely split would be on the implementation level: MRI/YARV vs. Rubinius vs. JRuby vs. Gemstone. The camps are working together pretty well right now and aren't looking to divide the community, but I would hate to see it turn into a Lisp-like situation. No offense to Lisp - I love it from the outside, and would enjoy using it professionally - but the fragmentation is definitely a barrier to entry.