JRuby 1.6.0.RC2 Released

JRuby 1.6.0.RC2 has been released. Here are the more notable things fixed since RC1:

• Large number of 1.9 compatibility issues addressed
  • Encoding issues (especially involving Regexp)
  • Fiddle implementation
  • non-ASCII identifiers
• irb (1.8.7, 1.9.2) and command prompt added to Windows installer
• Compiler handles all 1.9 syntax now
• Fixes for new backtrace accuracy, reliability
• Removed all GPL or LGPL-only dependencies
• Updated to RubyGems 1.5.0
• C extension support prebuilt for OS X, Linux (32/64), Windows (32)
• 83 issues resolved since RC1

Now some of you may be thinking... RC2 had 83 resolved issues? Are you sure RC are the proper letters for the last two releases?Hindsight is 20-20. We knew 1.9 compatibility was not perfect, but during our RC1 release testing we were able to run all the major applications and libraries for a reasonable set of scenarios. The truly surprising thing we realized after RC1 was released is how many people are ready for 1.9 support in JRuby. The feedback has been tremendous and we decided it would make sense to spend extra time fixing reported issues. After all, we want JRuby 1.6.0 to have solid Ruby 1.9.2 support. Please (or should I say PLEASE) give RC2 a spin and help us figure out if RC2 is good enough to become final. Only people actively using JRuby's --1.9 flag can help us figure this out (and of course any 1.8.7 bug reports are also welcome). Your testing will make the difference between a production-ready 1.6.0 and a production-ready 1.6.1. If you do find an issue you can report the problem on our issue tracker. If you are a first-time reporter you will need to signup to be able to create an issue (follow tiny ‘sign up' link underneath the Username field).