ruby--ruby/doc/NEWS

This file is not actively maintained.  See ChangeLog for recent changes.

: -W option

  new option to specify warning level. -W0 to shut up warnings, -W1 for normal level,
  -W2 for verbose level.  -w equals to -W1.

: Marshal to use marshal_dump and marshal_load

  if a dumping object responds to 'marshal_dump', Marshal.dump calls
  it, and dumps object returned.  Marshal.load allocates a new instance
  using "allocate", then calls its "marshal_load" with dumped data.

: lib/un

  Imported.  Used like 'ruby -run -e cp -- -p foo bar'.  Nest, isn't it?

: lib/webrick

  Imported.  Generic Internet server kit.

: $stdin, $stdout, $stderr

  can be assignable again.  the original stdio are preserved as STDIN,
  STDOUT, STDERR.

: multiple Tk interpreter

  to allow safe Tk, etc.

: ext/openssl

  Imported.

: ext/io/wait

  Imported.

: ext/bigdecimal

  Imported.

: Thread#group

  new method to get belonging  ThreadGroup.

: Kernel#warn(message)

  a method to give warnings.

: Process::detach(pid)

  new method to detach child process.  child process will be "wait"ed
  automagically.

: Object#instance_variable_set, Object#instance_variable_get

  added.

: ext/Win32API/lib/win32/registry

  added.

: lib/open-uri

  Imported.  This is an easy-to-use wrapper for net/http and net/ftp.

: lib/tmpdir

  imported. add Dir::tmpdir() to determine the temporary directory.

: lib/cgi.rb

  cgi[name] returns CGI::QueryExtension::Value that wraps string
  value, no longer array.

: ext/syck
: lib/yaml

  Imported.

: lib/rexml

  Imported.

: lib/xmlrpc
: lib/gserver

  Imported

: Class#inherited

  Method is called when Class is inherited by another class.

	class A; end
	def A.inherited(by)
          puts "A inherited by #{by.inspect}"
        end
        class B < A; end

        Prints out "A inherited by B"

: String#split

  if "sep" argument is a string, regular expression meta characters
  are escaped internally.

: String#to_i

  Now accepts optional base argument.

	"101".to_i(10) => 101
	"101".to_i(2)  => 5
	"101".to_i(8)  => 65
	"101".to_i(16) => 257

  A base argument of 0 guesses at the base.

	"101".to_i(0)   => 101
	"0b101".to_i(0) => 5
	"0101".to_i(0)  => 65
	"0x101".to_i(0) => 1

: Set class (set.rb)

  Imported.

: OptionParser module

  Imported.  Command line options utility library.

: parser

  %W(...) notation, word list literal like %w(...) with the
  exception that #{} interpolation is allowed.

: parser

  Now arbitrary statements are allowed inside #{} interpolation
  without escapes.  In other hand, they can no longer access to
  variables defined in eval.

: parser

  Digits preceded minus sign is a literal integer.

: IO::sysopen

  New method to get a raw file descriptor.

: TCPServer#accept, UNIXServer#accept, Socket#accept

  New methods to return an accepted socket fd.

: Date and DateTime

  lib/date.rb now provides both Date and DateTime.

  Some methods have been renamed.  But the old names are still alive.

  Some new methods have been added (Date::parse, Date#strftime, etc.).

  Date#mjd now returns the chronological modified Julian day number.

  All facilities about tjd have been removed.

: Thread#join

  Optional argument limits maximum time to wait the thread in second.
  And returns nil if timed out.

: Array#filter

  Previously deprecated, now removed.  Use Array#collect!.

: dl module

  Imported. An interface to the dynamic linker.

: IO#sysseek

  Added.

: IO

  64bit off_t support by Janathan Baker.

: abort()

  Takes optional terminate message argument.

: iconv module

  Imported.  Wrapper library of (({iconv})).

: IO.fsync

  New method that copies all in-memory parts of a file to disk and
  waits until the deice reports that all parts are on stable storage.
  Implemented with fsync(2) or equivalent.

: Dir#pos=

  Returns the new position instead of self.

: Dir::glob

  Now accepts optional FNM_* flags via the second argument, whereas
  Dir::[] doesn't.

    Dir.glob("makefile", File::FNM_CASEFOLD) #=> ['Makefile', 'makefile']

: fileutils module

  Imported.  File utility library.

: racc runtime module

  Imported.  Racc runtime library. (Racc is a parser generator for ruby)

: lib/tsort

  Imported.  Topological sorting library.

: ext/stringio

  Imported.  Pseudo (({IO})) class from/to (({String})).

: strscan module

  Imported.  Fast string scanner library.

: Array#pack, String#unpack

  Allows comment in template strings.

: Array#pack, String#unpack

  New templates 'q' and 'Q' for 64bit integer (signed and unsigned respectively).

: Array#new

  Now takes block to fill initial values.  E.g.

	Array.new(10) { |i| i + 1 }
	=> [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

: Array#fill

  Takes block to get the values to fill.

: Array#fetch

  Takes block to get the default value.

: Hash#update

  Takes block to resolve key conflict.

: IO#fsync

  Added.

: Array expansion

  Fixed with the following behavior:

    a = *[1]
    p a #=> [1]

  Now 1-element array in rhs is expanded properly.

    a = *[1]
    p a #=> 1

: allocation framework

  any instance of class can be allocated by class.allocate,
  (except a few classes).

: break and next

  Extended to take an optional expression, which is used as a value
  for termination. [experimental]

: comparison of exception classes in a rescue clause

  Changed to use Module#=== for comparing $! with the exception
  class specified in each rescue clause.

  As the previous behavior was to use kind_of?, the effect is limited
  to the SystemCallError case.  SystemCallError.=== has been newly
  defined to return true when the two have the same errno.  With this
  change, SystemCallError's with the same errno, such as Errno::EAGAIN
  and Errno::EWOULDBLOCK, can both be rescued by listing just one of
  them.

: constants lookup

  Improved at the performance of searching by using an internal hash
  table.

: expression parenthesis in the first argument

  Experimentally altered to get the following code (note the space
  after p):

    p ("xx"*2).to_i

  Interpreted as:

    p (("xx"*2).to_i)

  Instead of:

    (p("xx"*2)).to_i

: implicit comparison in conditional expressions

  Obsoleted except when it is used in -e.

  : between Range and $.
      Use explicit comparison instead.

  : between Regexp and $_
      Use the unary method ~/re/ instead.

: to_str

  Added to get objects which define to_str() treated as String's.

  Now almost all the built-in methods try each argument with to_str()
  when they expect it to be a String.

    foo = Object.new
    class <<foo
      def to_str
        "foo"
      end
    end
    p File.open(foo)
    => -:7:in `open': wrong argument type Object (expected String) (TypeError)
       ruby 1.6.4 (2001-04-19) [i586-linux]
    => -:7:in `open': No such file or directory - "foo" (Errno::ENOENT)
       ruby 1.7.0 (2001-05-02) [i586-linux]

: pp module

  Imported. Prity Printing library.

: open

  Extended so that when the third argument is permission flags it
  calls open(2) instead of fopen(3).

: Array#fetch(index [, default])

  Added.  If a default value isn't given, raises index error if index
  is out of range.

: Array#insert(n, other, ...)

  Added. [ruby-talk:14289]

  This is much the same as (({ary[n,0] = [other,...]})) except
  returing self.

    ary = [0,1,2,3]
    ary[2, 0] = [4, 5, 6]
    p ary

    ary = [0,1,2,3]
    ary.insert(2, 4, 5, 6)
    p ary

: Array#sort!

  Changed to always return self without checking whether the sequence
  of the elements was modified or not.

  Beware that this behavior is not guaranteed to continue in the
  future.  Do not rely on its return value. [ruby-dev:12506]

: Curses

  Updated.  New methods and constants for using the mouse, character
  attributes, colors and key codes have been added.

: Dir#path

  Added.

: Dir.chdir

  Extended to take a block.

: Dir.glob

  Made to support meta-character escaping by a backslash.  Wildcards
  and spaces may now be escaped using a backslash.

: Dir.open

  Changed to return what the block returns when a block is given, just
  as File.open does. (It always returned (({nil})) in 1.6 and
  prior)

: Dir.chdir

  Changed to warn only when invoked from multiple threads or no block
  is given. [ruby-dev:13823]

    Dir.chdir('foo') {
      Dir.chdir('bar') {   # previously warned
        puts Dir.pwd
      }
    }

: Enumerable#all?
: Enumerable#any?
: Enumerable#inject
: Enumerable#sort_by

  Added.

: File#fnmatch, File::Constants::FNM_*

  Added.  Refer to the fnmatch(3) manpage for details.

  Localism is FNM_DOTMATCH which has the opposite meaning of the
  commonly known FNM_PERIOD, which does not exist in Ruby.

  e.g.

    # exclude files matching "*.bak" case-insensitively.
    files.reject! {|fn| File.fnmatch?("*.bak", fn, File::FNM_CASEFOLD) }

: File.lchmod
: File.lchown

  Added.

: File.open, IO.open

  File mode can be specified by flags like open(2),
  e.g. File::open(path, File::CREAT|File::WRONLY).

: IO.open

  Made public.  Can only associate an IO object with a file number
  like IO.new and IO.for_fd, but can take a block.

: IO.for_fd

  Added as a synonym for IO.new.

: IO.read

  Added.  Like IO.readlines, except it returns the entire file as a
  string.  [ruby-talk:9460]

: Interrupt

  Made a subclass of SignalException. (It was a subclass of
  Exception in 1.6 and prior)

: Marshal

  Fixed not to dump anonymous classes/modules.

  Fixed with loading modules.

: Math.acos(x)
: Math.asin(x)
: Math.atan(x)
: Math.cosh(x)
: Math.hypot(x,y)
: Math.sinh(x)
: Math.tanh(x)

  Added.

: Method#==

  Added.

: Module#include?

  Added. [ruby-dev:13941] 

: Module#included

  Added.  This is a hook called after Module#append_feature.

: Module#method_removed
: Module#method_undefined

  Added.

: Module.new, Class.new

  Extended to take block.

: Multiple assignment behavior

  Fixed so that "*a = nil" results in "a == []".

: Net::HTTP

  New version of Net::HTTP has introduced seriously incompatible
  changes. For details, see document embedded in net/http.rb itself.

: NameError and NoMethodError

  Moved and now NoMethodError < NameError < StandardError.

: NoMethodError

  Added. [ruby-dev:12763]

: NotImplementError

  Finally obsoleted.  Use NotImplementedError.

: Object#singleton_method_removed
: Object#singleton_method_undefined

  Added.

: Proc#==

  Added.

: Process.times

  Moved from Time.times. (Time.times still remains but emits a
  warning)

: Process.waitall

  Added.

: Process::Status

  Added.  (({$?})) is now an instance of this class.

: Range#step([step=1])

  Added.

: Regexp#options

  Added.

: Regexp.last_match(n)

  Extended to take an optional argument.

: Signal

  Added. This module has module functions Signal.trap and Signal.list.

: Socket.pack_sockaddr_in, Socket.unpack_sockaddr_in

  Added.  Utility for direct Socket access.

: Socket.pack_sockaddr_un, Socket.unpack_sockaddr_un

  Added.  Utility for direct Socket access.

: String#[regexp, nth]

  Extended to accepts optional second argument.

  It tries match between self and REGEXP, then returns the
  content of the NTH regexp register.

: String#casecmp

  Added.  This is a case insensitive version of String#<=>.

: String#chomp

  If $/ == "\n", chops off last newlines (any of \n, \r, \r\n).

: String#eql?

  Changed to be always case sensitive.

: String#insert(n, other)

  Added.

  This is much the same as (({str[n, 0] = other})) except returing
  self.

: String#lstrip, rstrip, lstrip!, rstrip!

  Added.  These strip only left or right part of a string.

: String#match

  Added.

: String/Array methods

  Returns an instance of receivers class.

: String.new

  The first argument becomes optional.

: Symbol#intern

  Added.

: Symbol.all_symbols

  Added. [ruby-dev:12921]

: SystemCallError.===

  Added. (See the "Comparison of exception classes in a rescue clause"
  paragraph above) [ruby-dev:12670]

: SystemExit#status

  Added.

: TCPServer#listen, UNIXServer#listen

  Added.

: TCPSocket.new
: TCPSocket.open

  Extended to take an address and a port number for the local side in
  optional 3rd and 4th arguments.

: Time

  Extended to accept a negative time_t. (Only when the platform
  supports it)

    p Time.at(-1)
    => Thu Jan 01 08:59:59 JST 1970

: Time#to_a
: Time#zone

  Made to return "UTC" under gmtime.  It used to return a platform
  dependent value, typically "GMT", in 1.6 and prior.