A recommended list of resources about how Ruby is evolving

As Ruby 3.3 is around the corner, I suggest a list of recommended articles or videos to watch to get up to date with Ruby's evaluation as a language.

This is a partial list of some of the things happening in Ruby. Still, I think it is an excellent start to glimpse how Ruby's programming language is evolving and how much effort the community puts into keeping Ruby a joy to use.

Context

First, I recommend you watch this video where Matz is talking about how he chooses to include in Ruby and about Ruby future:

New language syntax

Then I recommend you read the following series of articles (hint: They are not useless 😀 )

• That useless Ruby syntax sugar that emerged in new versions

• “Useless syntax sugar”: Numeric block parameters

• “Useless Ruby sugar”: Pattern matching (Pt. 1)

• "Useless Ruby sugar”: Pattern matching (Pt. 2)

• “Useless Ruby sugar”: Pattern matching (Pt. 3/3)

• “Useless Ruby sugar”: Keyword argument and hash values omission

• “Useless Ruby sugar”: Argument forwarding

• “Useless Ruby sugar”: Endless (one-line) methods

Performance

First, I would recommend you read about Object Shapes:

• Object shapes - how this under-the-hood change in Ruby 3.2.0 will improve your code performance

• Performance impact of the memoization idiom on modern Ruby

• Writing Object Shape friendly code in Ruby

Then I would recommend you read about YJIT:

• YJIT Is the Most Memory-Efficient Ruby JIT

• Ruby 3.3's YJIT: Faster While Using Less Memory

• Ruby 3.2’s YJIT is Production-Ready

I think you could also read a good article about Ractors by Julie Kent or watch a presentation about them by Abiodun Olowode.

A more high-level overview

(A shameless plug) I would also recommend my presentation at Friendly.rb this year about The State of the Rubyverse where I try to show various projects happening in Ruby world:

Going deep into details

I would recommend you browse https://rubyreferences.github.io/rubychanges/

It contains a more detailed (with examples) list of changes per each Ruby version.

Then I would recommend the series called Advent of Prism from Kevin Netwon and also watch this video from Takashi Kokubun about RJIT

---

Enjoyed this article?

👉 Join my Short Ruby News newsletter for weekly Ruby updates from the community and visit rubyandrails.info, a directory with learning content about Ruby.

👐 Subscribe to my Ruby and Ruby on rails courses over email at learn.shortruby.com - effortless learning anytime, anywhere

🤝 Let's connect on Ruby.social or Linkedin or Twitter where I post mainly about Ruby and Rails.

🎥 Follow me on my YouTube channel for short videos about Ruby