# NEWS for Ruby 4.0.0

This document is a list of user-visible feature changes
since the **3.4.0** release, except for bug fixes.

Note that each entry is kept to a minimum, see links for details.

## Language changes

* `*nil` no longer calls `nil.to_a`, similar to how `**nil` does
  not call `nil.to_hash`.  [[Feature #21047]]

* Logical binary operators (`||`, `&&`, `and` and `or`) at the
  beginning of a line continue the previous line, like fluent dot.
  The following two code are equal:

    ```ruby
    if condition1
       && condition2
      ...
    end
    ```

    ```ruby
    if condition1 && condition2
      ...
    end
    ```

    [[Feature #20925]]

## Core classes updates

Note: We're only listing outstanding class updates.

* Kernel

    * `Kernel#inspect` now checks for the existence of a `#instance_variables_to_inspect` method,
      allowing control over which instance variables are displayed in the `#inspect` string:

        ```ruby
        class DatabaseConfig
          def initialize(host, user, password)
            @host = host
            @user = user
            @password = password
          end

          private def instance_variables_to_inspect = [:@host, :@user]
        end

        conf = DatabaseConfig.new("localhost", "root", "hunter2")
        conf.inspect #=> #<DatabaseConfig:0x0000000104def350 @host="localhost", @user="root">
        ```

        [[Feature #21219]]

    * A deprecated behavior, process creation by `Kernel#open` with a
      leading `|`, was removed.  [[Feature #19630]]

* Binding

    * `Binding#local_variables` does no longer include numbered parameters.
      Also, `Binding#local_variable_get` and `Binding#local_variable_set` reject
      to handle numbered parameters.  [[Bug #21049]]

* IO

    * `IO.select` accepts `Float::INFINITY` as a timeout argument.
      [[Feature #20610]]

    * A deprecated behavior, process creation by `IO` class methods
      with a leading `|`, was removed.  [[Feature #19630]]

* Math

    * `Math.log1p` and `Math.expm1` are added. [[Feature #21527]]

* Socket

    * `Socket.tcp` & `TCPSocket.new` accepts `open_timeout` as a keyword argument to specify
      the timeout for the initial connection. [[Feature #21347]]

* Ractor

    * `Ractor::Port` class was added for a new synchronization mechanism
      to communicate between Ractors. [[Feature #21262]]

        ```ruby
        port1 = Ractor::Port.new
        port2 = Ractor::Port.new
        Ractor.new port1, port2 do |port1, port2|
          port1 << 1
          port2 << 11
          port1 << 2
          port2 << 12
        end
        2.times{ p port1.receive } #=> 1, 2
        2.times{ p port2.receive } #=> 11, 12
        ```

        `Ractor::Port` provides the following methods:

        * `Ractor::Port#receive`
        * `Ractor::Port#send` (or `Ractor::Port#<<`)
        * `Ractor::Port#close`
        * `Ractor::Port#closed?`

        As result, `Ractor.yield` and `Ractor#take` were removed.

    * `Ractor#join` and `Ractor#value` were added to wait for the
      termination of a Ractor. These are similar to `Thread#join`
      and `Thread#value`.

    * `Ractor#monitor` and `Ractor#unmonitor` were added as low-level
      interfaces used internally to implement `Ractor#join`.

    * `Ractor.select` now only accepts Ractors and Ports. If Ractors are given,
      it returns when a Ractor terminates.

    * `Ractor#default_port` was added. Each `Ractor` has a default port,
      which is used by `Ractor.send`, `Ractor.receive`.

    * `Ractor#close_incoming` and `Ractor#close_outgoing` were removed.

    * `Ractor.shareable_proc` and `Ractor.shareable_lambda` is introduced
      to make shareable Proc or lambda.
      [[Feature #21550]], [[Feature #21557]]

* `Set`

    * `Set` is now a core class, instead of an autoloaded stdlib class.
      [[Feature #21216]]

* String

    * Update Unicode to Version 17.0.0 and Emoji Version 17.0.
      [[Feature #19908]][[Feature #20724]][[Feature #21275]] (also applies to Regexp)

* Thread

    * Introduce support for `Thread#raise(cause:)` argument similar to
      `Kernel#raise`. [[Feature #21360]]

* Fiber

    * Introduce support for `Fiber#raise(cause:)` argument similar to
      `Kernel#raise`. [[Feature #21360]]

* Fiber::Scheduler

    * Introduce `Fiber::Scheduler#fiber_interrupt` to interrupt a fiber with a
      given exception. The initial use case is to interrupt a fiber that is
      waiting on a blocking IO operation when the IO operation is closed.
      [[Feature #21166]]

* Pathname

    * Pathname has been promoted from a default gem to a core class of Ruby.
      [[Feature #17473]]

## Stdlib updates

The following bundled gems are promoted from default gems.

* ostruct 0.6.3
* pstore 0.2.0
* benchmark 0.5.0
* logger 1.7.0
* rdoc 6.16.1
* win32ole 1.9.2
* irb 1.15.3
* reline 0.6.3
* readline 0.0.4
* fiddle 1.1.8

We only list stdlib changes that are notable feature changes.

Other changes are listed in the following sections. We also listed release
history from the previous bundled version that is Ruby 3.3.0 if it has GitHub
releases.

The following default gem is added.

* win32-registry 0.1.1

The following default gems are updated.

* RubyGems 4.0.0.beta2
* bundler 4.0.0.beta2
* date 3.5.0
* digest 3.2.1
* english 0.8.1
* erb 6.0.0
* etc 1.4.6
* fcntl 1.3.0
* fileutils 1.8.0
* io-console 0.8.1
* io-nonblock 0.3.2
* io-wait 0.4.0.dev
* json 2.16.0
* net-http 0.8.0
* openssl 4.0.0.pre
* optparse 0.8.0
* pp 0.6.3
* prism 1.6.0
* psych 5.2.6
* resolv 0.6.3
* stringio 3.1.9.dev
* strscan 3.1.6.dev
* timeout 0.4.4
* uri 1.1.1
* weakref 0.1.4
* zlib 3.2.2

The following bundled gems are added.


The following bundled gems are updated.

* minitest 5.26.2
* power_assert 3.0.1
* rake 13.3.1
* test-unit 3.7.3
* rexml 3.4.4
* net-ftp 0.3.9
* net-imap 0.5.12
* net-smtp 0.5.1
* matrix 0.4.3
* prime 0.1.4
* rbs 3.9.5
* typeprof 0.31.0
* debug 1.11.0
* base64 0.3.0
* bigdecimal 3.3.1
* drb 2.2.3
* syslog 0.3.0
* csv 3.3.5
* repl_type_completor 0.1.12

## Supported platforms

## Compatibility issues

* The following methods were removed from Ractor due to the addition of `Ractor::Port`:

    * `Ractor.yield`
    * `Ractor#take`
    * `Ractor#close_incoming`
    * `Ractor#close_outgoging`

    [[Feature #21262]]

* `ObjectSpace._id2ref` is deprecated. [[Feature #15408]]

## Stdlib compatibility issues

* CGI library is removed from the default gems. Now we only provide `cgi/escape` for
  the following methods:

    * `CGI.escape` and `CGI.unescape`
    * `CGI.escapeHTML` and `CGI.unescapeHTML`
    * `CGI.escapeURIComponent` and `CGI.unescapeURIComponent`
    * `CGI.escapeElement` and `CGI.unescapeElement`

    [[Feature #21258]]

* With the move of `Set` from stdlib to core class, `set/sorted_set.rb` has
  been removed, and `SortedSet` is no longer an autoloaded constant. Please
  install the `sorted_set` gem and `require 'sorted_set'` to use `SortedSet`.
  [[Feature #21287]]

## C API updates

* IO

    * `rb_thread_fd_close` is deprecated and now a no-op. If you need to expose
      file descriptors from C extensions to Ruby code, create an `IO` instance
      using `RUBY_IO_MODE_EXTERNAL` and use `rb_io_close(io)` to close it (this
      also interrupts and waits for all pending operations on the `IO`
      instance). Directly closing file descriptors does not interrupt pending
      operations, and may lead to undefined behaviour. In other words, if two
      `IO` objects share the same file descriptor, closing one does not affect
      the other. [[Feature #18455]]

## Implementation improvements

### Ractor

A lot of work has gone into making Ractors more stable, performant, and usable. These improvements bring Ractors implementation closer to leaving experimental status.

* Performance improvements
    * Frozen strings and the symbol table internally use a lock-free hash set
    * Method cache lookups avoid locking in most cases
    * Class (and geniv) instance variable access is faster and avoids locking
    * Cache contention is avoided during object allocation
    * `object_id` avoids locking in most cases
* Bug fixes and stability
    * Fixed possible deadlocks when combining Ractors and Threads
    * Fixed issues with require and autoload in a Ractor
    * Fixed encoding/transcoding issues across Ractors
    * Fixed race conditions in GC operations and method invalidation
    * Fixed issues with processes forking after starting a Ractor

## JIT

* YJIT
    * YJIT stats
        * `ratio_in_yjit` no longer works in the default build.
          Use `--enable-yjit=stats` on `configure` to enable it on `--yjit-stats`.
        * Add `invalidate_everything` to default stats, which is
          incremented when every code is invalidated by TracePoint.
    * Add `mem_size:` and `call_threshold:` options to `RubyVM::YJIT.enable`.
* ZJIT
    * Add an experimental method-based JIT compiler.
      Use `--enable-zjit` on `configure` to enable the `--zjit` support.
    * As of Ruby 4.0.0-preview1, ZJIT is not yet ready for speeding up most benchmarks.
      Please refrain from evaluating ZJIT just yet. Stay tuned for the Ruby 4.0 release.
* RJIT
    * `--rjit` is removed. We will move the implementation of the third-party JIT API
      to the [ruby/rjit](https://github.com/ruby/rjit) repository.

[Feature #15408]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/15408
[Feature #17473]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17473
[Feature #18455]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/18455
[Feature #19630]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/19630
[Feature #19908]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/19908
[Feature #20610]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/20610
[Feature #20724]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/20724
[Feature #20925]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/20925
[Feature #21047]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21047
[Bug #21049]:     https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21049
[Feature #21166]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21166
[Feature #21216]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21216
[Feature #21219]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21219
[Feature #21258]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21258
[Feature #21262]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21262
[Feature #21275]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21275
[Feature #21287]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21287
[Feature #21347]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21347
[Feature #21360]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21360
[Feature #21527]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21527
[Feature #21550]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21550
[Feature #21557]: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21557
