What version of Rails/Ruby to use...

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hello all,

I'm running into a quagmire of RoR and Rails versions, and I'd like some advice on what to use.

I'd like to set up a RoR environment where I can find ample examples and possibly a couple of good books to help me along, but I'm not sure which version(s) to use: Should I go for RoR 2.1, and if so, do I use Ruby 1.9 (cutting edge option) or should I stay with RoR 1.2 and an older version of Ruby?

I'm a big fan of the Pragmatic Bookshelf books, but both 'cutting edge version' books (the pickaxe and the Agile Development with RoR) seem to be in Beta.

Also, if I do choose older versions of RoR/Ruby, has anyone got any experience with upgrading from these to newer versions? Will it be prohibitively difficult?

Any advice/tips are appreciated.

Cheers,

Alex.

2

Hello all,

I’m running into a quagmire of RoR and Rails versions, and I’d like

some advice on what to use.

I’d like to set up a RoR environment where I can find ample examples

and possibly a couple of good books to help me along, but I’m not sure

which version(s) to use: Should I go for RoR 2.1, and if so, do I use

Ruby 1.9 (cutting edge option) or should I stay with RoR 1.2 and an

older version of Ruby?

I would stick with Ruby 1.8.x. 1.9 is still in development. Rails 2.1 is the only version that is compatible with Ruby 1.8.7, otherwise you’ll need 1.8.6 for any version of Rails prior to 2.1.

Rails 2.1 has some compelling features (Timezones, Named scopes), so I would highly recommend it.

I’m a big fan of the Pragmatic Bookshelf books, but both 'cutting edge

version’ books (the pickaxe and the Agile Development with RoR) seem

to be in Beta.

Also, if I do choose older versions of RoR/Ruby, has anyone got any

experience with upgrading from these to newer versions? Will it be

prohibitively difficult?

It’s a good time! You’ll want to update one version at a time, and fix any errors or deprecation warnings that come up. If you have a good test suite, this is pretty easy. If not, godspeed. :wink:

So, if you have an app that is on 1.0.x, update it to 1.1.x, fix any errors or warnings, then rinse and repeat with 1.2.x, 2.0.x, and 2.1.

Any advice/tips are appreciated.

Cheers,

Alex.

Brandon

3

Indeed :slight_smile:

Thanks for the help guys. I just don't want to get going with RoR and then find out the version I'm using is defunct/deprecated/buggy/etc...

I'll try my luck with 2.1 and 1.8.7. I think I can stand a little 'bleed' :slight_smile:

Alex.