NEWS

# -*- rd -*-
= NEWS

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 1.9.2 release
=== License

* Ruby's License is changed from a dual license with GPLv2
  to a dual license with 2-clause BSDL.

=== C API updates

* rb_scan_args() is enhanced with support for option hash argument
  extraction.

* ruby_vm_at_exit() added.  This enables extension libs to hook a VM
  termination.

=== Library updates (outstanding ones only)

* builtin classes

  * Array
    * extended method:
      * Array#pack supports endian modifiers

  * Encoding
    * new encodings:
      * CP950
      * CP951
      * UTF-16
      * UTF-32

  * Float
    * new constant:
      * File::NULL
        name of NULL device.
    * extended method:
      * String#unpack supports endian modifiers

  * IO
    * extended method:
      * IO#putc supports multibyte characters
    * new method:
      * IO#advise

  * Kernel
    * Kernel#respond_to? now returns false for protected methods.
    * move #__id__ to BasicObject.

  * Module
    * new methods:
      * Module#private_constant
      * Module#public_constant

  * String
    * new method:
      * String#prepend

  * Time
    * extended method:
      * Time#strftime supports %:z and %::z.

* io/console
  * new methods:
    * IO#noecho {|io| }
    * IO#echo=
    * IO#echo?
    * IO#raw {|io| }
    * IO#raw!
    * IO#getch
    * IO#winsize
    * IO.console

* RDoc
  * RDoc has been upgraded to RDoc 3.0.1.  For full release notes see
    http://rdoc.rubyforge.org/History_txt.html

* rexml
  * [incompatible] support Ruby native encoding mechanism
    and iconv dependency is dropped. This means encoding
    methods (Document#encoding, XMLDecl#encoding,
    Output#encoding and Source#encoding) return an Encoding
    object instead of an encoding name.

* stringio
  * extended method:
    * StringIO#set_encoding can get 2nd argument and optional hash.

* uri
  * new methods:
    * URI::Generic#hostname
    * URI::Generic#hostname=

* webrick
  * new method:
    * WEBrick::HTTPRequest#continue for generating '100 continue' response.
  * new logging directive:
    * %{remote}p for remote (client) port number.

=== Language changes

* Regexps now support Unicode 6.0. (new characters and scripts)

* [experimental] Regexps now support Age property.
  Unlike Perl, current implementation takes interpretation of the
  interpretation of UTS #18.
  http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr18/

=== Compatibility issues (excluding feature bug fixes)

* Kernel#respond_to?

  See above.

* REXML::Document#encoding, REXML::XMLDecl#encoding,
  REXML::Output#encoding and REXML::Source#encoding

  Return an Encoding object not encoding name as a String.