Ruby 2.1 news

= NEWS for Ruby 2.1.0

This document is a list of user visible feature changes made between
releases except for bug fixes.

Note that each entry is kept so brief that no reason behind or
reference information is supplied with.  For a full list of changes
with all sufficient information, see the ChangeLog file.

== Changes since the 2.0.0 release

=== Language changes

* Now the default values of keyword arguments can be omitted.  Those
  "required keyword arguments" need giving explicitly at the call time.

* Added suffixes for integer and float literals: 'r', 'i', and 'ri'.
  * "42r" and "3.14r" are evaluated as Rational(42, 1) and 3.14.rationalize,
    respectively.  But exponential form with 'r' suffix like "6.022e+23r" is
    not accepted because it is misleading.
  * "42i" and "3.14i" are evaluated as Complex(0, 42) and Complex(0, 3.14),
    respectively.
  * "42ri" and "3.14ri" are evaluated as Complex(0, 42r) and Complex(0, 3.14r),
    respectively.

* def-expr now returns the symbol of its name instead of nil.

* Added 'f' suffix for string literals that returns a frozen String object.

=== Core classes updates (outstanding ones only)

* Binding
  * New methods
    * Binding#local_variable_get(symbol)
    * Binding#local_variable_set(symbol, obj)
    * Binding#local_variable_defined?(symbol)

* GC
  * added environment variable:
    * RUBY_HEAP_SLOTS_GROWTH_FACTOR: growth rate of the heap.

* Integer
  * New methods
    * Fixnum#bit_length
    * Bignum#bit_length
  * Bignum performance improvement
    * Use GMP if available.
      GMP is used only for several operations:
      multiplication, division, radix conversion, GCD

* IO
  * extended methods:
    * IO#seek supports SEEK_DATA and SEEK_HOLE as whence.
    * IO#seek accepts symbols (:CUR, :END, :SET, :DATA, :HOLE) for 2nd argument.
    * IO#read_nonblock accepts optional `exception: false` to return symbols
    * IO#write_nonblock accepts optional `exception: false` to return symbols

* Kernel
  * New methods:
    * Kernel#singleton_method

* Module
  * New methods:
    * Module#using, which activates refinements of the specified module only
      in the current class or module definition.
    * Module#singleton_class? returns true if the receiver is a singleton class
      or false if it is an ordinary class or module.
  * extended methods:
    * Module#refine is no longer experimental.
    * Module#include and Module#prepend are now public methods.

* Mutex
  * misc
    * Mutex#owned? is no longer experimental.

* Numeric
  * extended methods:
    * Numeric#step allows the limit argument to be omitted, in which
      case an infinite sequence of numbers is generated.  Keyword
      arguments `to` and `by` are introduced for ease of use.

* Process
  * New methods:
    * alternative methods to $0/$0=:
      * Process.argv0() returns the original value of $0.
      * Process.setproctitle() sets the process title without affecting $0.
    * Process.clock_gettime
    * Process.clock_getres

* RbConfig
  * New constants:
    * RbConfig::SIZEOF is added to provide the size of C types.

* String
  * New methods:
    * String#scrub and String#scrub! verify and fix invalid byte sequence.
  * extended methods:
    * If invalid: :replace is specified for String#encode, replace
      invalid byte sequence even if the destination encoding equals to
      the source encoding.

* Symbol
  * All symbols are now frozen.

* pack/unpack (Array/String)
  * Q! and q! directives for long long type if platform has the type.

* toplevel
  * extended methods:
    * main.using is no longer experimental. The method activates refinements
      in the ancestors of the argument module to support refinement
      inheritance by Module#include.

=== Core classes compatibility issues (excluding feature bug fixes)

* IO
  * incompatible changes:
    * open ignore internal encoding if external encoding is ASCII-8BIT.

* Kernel#eval, Kernel#instance_eval, and Module#module_eval.
  * Copies the scope information of the original environment, which means
    that private, protected, public, and module_function without arguments
    do not affect the environment outside the eval string.
    For example, `class Foo; eval "private"; def foo; end; end' doesn't make
    Foo#foo private.

* Kernel#untrusted?, untrust, and trust
  * These methods are deprecated and their behavior is same as tainted?,
    taint, and untaint, respectively.  If $VERBOSE is true, they show warnings.

* Module#ancestors
  * The ancestors of a singleton class now include singleton classes,
    in particular itself.

* Module#define_method and Object#define_singleton_method
  * Now they return the symbols of the defined methods, not the methods/procs
    themselves.

* Numeric#quo
  * Raises TypeError instead of ArgumentError if the receiver doesn't have
    to_r method.

* Proc
  * Returning from lambda proc now always exits from the Proc, not from the
    method where the lambda is created.  Returing from non-lambda proc exits
    from the method, same as the former behavior.


=== Stdlib updates (outstanding ones only)

* CGI::Util
  * All class methods modulized.

* Digest
  * extended methods:
    * Digest::Class.file takes optional arguments for its constructor

* Matrix
  * Added Vector#cross_product.

* Net::SMTP
  * Added Net::SMTP#rset to implement the RSET command

* Pathname
  * New methods:
    * Pathname#write
    * Pathname#binwrite

* OpenSSL::BN
  * extended methods:
    * OpenSSL::BN.new allows Fixnum/Bignum argument.

* open-uri
  * Support multiple fields with same field name (like Set-Cookie).

* RDoc
  * Updated to 4.1.0.preview.1.  Major enhancements include a modified default
    template and accessibility enhancements.

    For a list of minor enhancements and bug fixes see:
    https://github.com/rdoc/rdoc/blob/v4.1.0.preview.1/History.rdoc

* Resolv
  * New methods:
    * Resolv::DNS.fetch_resource
  * One-shot multicast DNS support
  * Support LOC resources

* REXML::Parsers::SAX2Parser
  * Fixes wrong number of arguments of entitydecl event. Document of the event
    says "an array of the entity declaration" but implemenation passes two
    or more arguments. It is an implementation bug but it breaks backword
    compatibility.

* REXML::Parsers::StreamParser
  * Supports "entity" event.

* REXML::Text
  * REXML::Text#<< supports method chain like 'text << "XXX" << "YYY"'.
  * REXML::Text#<< supports not "raw" mode.

* Rinda::RingServer, Rinda::RingFinger
  * Rinda now supports multicast sockets.  See Rinda::RingServer and
    Rinda::RingFinger for details.

* RubyGems
  * Updated to 2.2.0.preview.1  For a list of enhancements and bug fixes see:
    https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems/blob/v2.2.0.preview.1/History.txt

* Set
  * New methods:
    * Set#intersect?
    * Set#disjoint?

* Socket
  * New methods:
    * Socket.getifaddrs

* StringScanner
  * extended methods:
    * StringScanner#[] supports named captures.

* Syslog::Logger
  * Added facility.

* Tempfile
  * New methods:
    * Tempfile.create


* WEBrick
  * The body of a response may now be a StringIO or other IO-like that responds
    to #readpartial and #read.

* XMLRPC::Client
  * New methods:
    * XMLRPC::Client#http. It returns Net::HTTP for the client. Normally,
      it is not needed. It is useful when you want to change minor HTTP client
      options. You can change major HTTP client options by XMLRPC::Client
      methods. You should use XMLRPC::Client methods for changing major
      HTTP client options instead of XMLRPC::Client#http.


=== Stdlib compatibility issues (excluding feature bug fixes)

* objspace
  * new method:
    * ObjectSpace.trace_object_allocations
    * ObjectSpace.trace_object_allocations_start
    * ObjectSpace.trace_object_allocations_stop
    * ObjectSpace.trace_object_allocations_clear
    * ObjectSpace.allocation_sourcefile
    * ObjectSpace.allocation_sourceline
    * ObjectSpace.allocation_class_path
    * ObjectSpace.allocation_method_id
    * ObjectSpace.allocation_generation

* Set
  * incompatible changes:
    * Set#to_set now returns self instead of generating a copy.

* URI
  * incompatible changes:
    * URI.decode_www_form follows current WHATWG URL Standard.
      It gets encoding argument to specify the character encoding.
      It now allows loose percent encoded strings, but denies ;-separator.
    * URI.encode_www_form follows current WHATWG URL Standard.
      It gets encoding argument to convert before percent encode.
      UTF-16 strings aren't converted to UTF-8 before percent encode by default.


=== Built-in global variables compatibility issues

* $SAFE
  * $SAFE=4 is obsolete.  If $SAFE is set to 4 or larger, an ArgumentError
    is raised.
  

* objspace
  * new method:
    * ObjectSpace.trace_object_allocations
    * ObjectSpace.trace_object_allocations_start
    * ObjectSpace.trace_object_allocations_stop
    * ObjectSpace.trace_object_allocations_clear
    * ObjectSpace.allocation_sourcefile
    * ObjectSpace.allocation_sourceline
    * ObjectSpace.allocation_class_path
    * ObjectSpace.allocation_method_id
    * ObjectSpace.allocation_generation
    

?ras[help]

Rack AllocationStats help

Append ras[trace]=true to your URL to trace all object allocations during the
request. The server will respond with statistics on the allocations, instead of
the application's response.

Options

ras[times]=COUNT
    send the request to the application COUNT times, to reduce statistics from
    initial allocations that don't happen on repeat requests.

ras[help]
    immediately respond with this help text

ras[scope]=SCOPE
    limits the list of allocations in the response to those whose `sourcefile`
    matches SCOPE. `ras[scope]='.'` is a special case which is expanded to be
    the current working directory.

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