# Libxml-ruby is too crazy **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 8, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/libxml-ruby-is-too-crazy/155159 "2008-12-08T20:37:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/e274bd/32.png) [@hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hoshbad)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/libxml-ruby-is-too-crazy/155159/1 "2008-12-08T20:37:52Z")
Okay, if any libxml-ruby developers read this list, I sincerely hope you will read this and hear my plea. Stop the madness! I just installed the latest version of libxml-ruby (0.9.6) and suddenly my old scripts are breaking when I call the “save” method. Worst of all, this is a Type Error that seems to be occuring in the C layer – Ruby blows up because apparently save is expecting a Hash?!? Whaaaaaaaa? The API docs say it’s expecting a boolean, last time I checked “true” is a boolean value. Stop the hate, child! ---
**Author:** ![hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/e274bd/32.png) [@hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hoshbad)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 9:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/libxml-ruby-is-too-crazy/155159/2 "2008-12-08T21:11:37Z")
Mind you, I fixed the problem by rolling back to version 0.9.4. : ) Sebastian W. wrote: > Okay, if any libxml-ruby developers read this list, I sincerely hope you > will read this and hear my plea. Stop the madness! I just installed the > latest version of libxml-ruby (0.9.6) and suddenly my old scripts are > breaking when I call the “save” method. > > Worst of all, this is a Type Error that seems to be occuring in the C > layer – Ruby blows up because apparently save is expecting a Hash?!? > Whaaaaaaaa? The API docs say it’s expecting a boolean, last time I > checked “true” is a boolean value. > > Stop the hate, child! ---
**Author:** ![hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/e274bd/32.png) [@hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hoshbad)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/libxml-ruby-is-too-crazy/155159/3 "2008-12-08T21:12:45Z")
On Dec 8, 2:31 pm, “Sebastian W.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Stop the hate, child! > Sorry to interrupt your ranting, but can you please provide a sample > of the problem? Like, a short script that exposes the problem before and after the update? You can easily use a old version of the gem simply by indicating it to “gem” command: require ‘rubygems’ gem ‘libxml’, ‘version goes here’ require ‘…’ Don’t rant without providing information for others to agree or disagree with you. At least do that, and we will make this a better world. ---
**Author:** ![hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/e274bd/32.png) [@hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hoshbad)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/libxml-ruby-is-too-crazy/155159/4 "2008-12-08T21:25:05Z")
Mark T. [2008-12-08 21:08]: > On Dec 8, 2:31 pm, “Sebastian W.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Okay, if any libxml-ruby developers read this list, I sincerely > > hope you will read this and hear my plea. Stop the madness! > > 0.9.6 was released today, and the announcement on the libxml-ruby > mailing list requested testing because it was heavily > refactored, preparing for a 1.0 release. So I suggest filing a > bug on rubyforge. > not sure if that’s the issue, but there’s been a major change wrt > XML::Document#save in 0.9.6. from the changelog: “This is an API change and may break existing calls to XML::Document#save.” [http://libxml.rubyforge.org/svn/trunk/CHANGES](http://libxml.rubyforge.org/svn/trunk/CHANGES) also, there is a mailing list dedicated to this project: [http://rubyforge.org/mail/?group\_id=494](http://rubyforge.org/mail/?group_id=494) cheers jens ---
**Author:** ![hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/e274bd/32.png) [@hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hoshbad)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/libxml-ruby-is-too-crazy/155159/5 "2008-12-08T21:15:41Z")
On Dec 8, 2:31 pm, “Sebastian W.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Okay, if any libxml-ruby developers read this list, I sincerely hope you > will read this and hear my plea. Stop the madness! 0.9.6 was released today, and the announcement on the libxml-ruby mailing list requested testing because it was heavily refactored, preparing for a 1.0 release. So I suggest filing a bug on rubyforge. – Mark. ---
**Author:** ![hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/e274bd/32.png) [@hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hoshbad)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/libxml-ruby-is-too-crazy/155159/6 "2008-12-09T16:30:34Z")
Mark T. wrote: > 0.9.6 was released today Does it work with ruby-1.9.1? I get a cascade of errors, starting with #warning use “ruby/io.h” instead of “rubyio.h” so it doesn’t look like a reportable bug so much as a known feature… ---
**Author:** ![hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/e274bd/32.png) [@hoshbad](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hoshbad)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 8:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/libxml-ruby-is-too-crazy/155159/7 "2008-12-13T08:41:34Z")
Okay, I will admit that I was trolling a bit when I wrote that original post. I apologize – it was the end of a frustrating day. Sorry for injecting negativity on the forums. That having been said, my source of frustration was that yes, okay - there is a new version of the gem out. I ran my scripts, things broke and I started looking through my code to find the problem. The error message I got when calling “save” was that I was passing a boolean where a hash was expected. So, sure enough, I dig through my trusty RDocs to find the documentation for the newest version of the gem. Here is where things went wrong for me and I posted in the forums – the API doc for save, at least when I looked, had not been updated to reflect the new signature for the “save” method. So…at least in my view of programming, if you do something as significant as changing the signature of a method as VITAL as “save”, you had better update that in the API doc. It’s good that there’s a libxml-ruby forum - and I did check it for threads but nothing jumped out - but I don’t find it reasonable to expect folks to have to go to the forum for updates on such a significant refactoring. If you change something as important as “save”, that MUST be updated in the RDoc. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Should I go dig through the source code if I think the RDoc is wrong? Well…on the one hand, I’m sort of forced to do that, but I don’t think that should be required. Just because we’re using open source software doesn’t mean that people should get sloppy. If you bothered to write the doc once, you’ve created an expectation that it’s going to stay updated. Did this turn into another rant? I suppose, but I just wanted to get it out there. Again – I just want to emphasize that libxml-ruby has been a great tool in my toolbelt for the past few months. It’s blazingly fast, gets stuff done fast, and I’ve generally found it to be pretty easy to work with (as easy as XML lends itself to be, but we’ll let that go by). So…I guess the frustration also came from me being used to the library being so great. When something that has been tried and true suddenly blows up, I get a little miffed. Whether or not that’s justified is something we can debate, I guess. : )