MacRuby's lead developer and Apple employee Laurent Sansonetti has today released MacRuby 0.10 (yep, that's ten), the latest version of the Mac OS X-focused Ruby implementation. 0.10 is the latest stepping stone on the way to a forthcoming 1.0 release.

Getting MacRuby

You can grab MacRuby 0.10 from the downloads page or directly at http://www.macruby.org/files/MacRuby 0.10.zip. Beware, though, that the binary installer download will only work on 64 bit Intel-powered machines running OS X 10.6 or higher.

New Features, New Possibilities

0.10 is not a major release but a few things stand out in the release notes for 0.10 amongst all the usual performance tweaks and bug fixes:

• Support for the new MacBook Pro hardware (SandyBridge processors).
• Fixes in macruby_deploy for App Store submissions.
• Xcode4 support.

This is the first time I've seen an obvious reference to the App Store in the MacRuby release notes and it's an exciting development. Back in October 2010, I wrote MacRuby + Mac App Store == Low Hanging Fruit for Rubyists where I riffed on the possibilities that MacRuby could offer to Rubyists looking to make a splash with Ruby powered desktop apps. It looks like the door might be opening a little on this.

Going Further

If MacRuby interests you and you want to 'book up' check out MacRuby: The Definitive Guide by Matt Aimonetti and MacRuby in Action by Brendan Lim. Both are still in pre-release stages but beta copies are available.

I also recommend reading MacRuby for the Desktop: Seven Reasons by Andre Lewis of Scout. He's in the process of building a desktop Mac app with MacRuby and shares some general insights into how he's finding MacRuby.

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