Misc #21681: Clarification on the Status and Roadmap of Ruby Box for Ruby 4.0

• Status: Open
• Assignee: -

[dmitry.pogrebnoy (Dmitry Pogrebnoy)]

Hello! I’d like to ask about the expected state of Ruby Box in the upcoming Ruby 4.0 release.

I came across the roadmap here: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/versions/105, which mentions the related feature: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21311. From the discussion, it seems there are several concerns around the proposal. I also noticed that the name Ruby Box originated from this thread: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21385.

In that discussion, it was mentioned that Ruby Box is expected to serve as a low-level API. However, I haven’t found any information about a potential high-level API built on top of it.

Since I’d like to plan ahead and ensure that development tools can support this new feature and its adoption, could you please clarify:

• Given the threads mentioned above, what is the final vision/scope of the Ruby Box feature? I appreciate if you point me towards relevant documentation.
• Is Ruby Box expected to be included by default in Ruby 4.0 (as usual planned for late December if I got it right)?
• What is the general plan or roadmap for Ruby Box? Are there any intentions to introduce a high-level API or additional related features?

Thank you very much for your time and for any insights you can share.

[tagomoris (Satoshi Tagomori)]

what is the final vision/scope of the Ruby Box feature?

That is described in the document (doc/box.md) in the source tree.

Is Ruby Box expected to be included by default in Ruby 4.0 (as usual planned for late December if I got it right)?

Ruby Box is still experimental and disabled by default in Ruby 4.0. We have to check the behavior in the real world with various libraries/application codes. We already know some cases that Ruby Box can't handle well for now.
After checks and development about those considerations, we'll make Ruby Box non-experimental feature and then make it enabled by default.

What is the general plan or roadmap for Ruby Box? Are there any intentions to introduce a high-level API or additional related features?

In my own use-case, Ruby Box is enough useful by itself.

But Matz is talking that he wants to introduce a kind of high level API to realize isolated "packages". It's his idea and not tightly coupled with Ruby Box itself (even if Ruby Box is expected as the foundation of the high level API, though).
So, the "high level API" should be a different ticket/proposal to Ruby.

[dmitry.pogrebnoy (Dmitry Pogrebnoy)]

Thank you for the detailed explanation! That clears things up a lot. Wishing Ruby Box a smooth landing in Ruby 4.0. Really looking forward to seeing how it evolves.