JRuby 1.3 will soon be released, and one useful improvement will be Nailgun integration:

For those not familiar, "NailGun is a client, protocol, and server for running Java programs from the command line without incurring the JVM startup overhead. Programs run in the server (implemented in java), triggered by the client (written in C), which handles all I/O."



Another reason to upgrade to 1.3 as soon as it's out is Nokogiri support. Nokogiri 1.3.0rc1 works with JRuby via ruby-ffi:

Thanks to herculean efforts by my nokogiri partner in crime, Mike Dalessio, nokogiri now works on JRuby 1.3.0RC1 via FFI.

To install this prerelease gem do this:

$ jgem install nokogiri -s http://tenderlovemaking.com/



Charles Nutter also continues to experiment with how ruby-ffi can improve system integration of JRuby.



In Ruby 1.9.1 news, a new update Ruby 1.9.1-p129 has been released:

This is a patch level release for Ruby 1.9.1. This fixes many bugs and two security vulnerabilities. This release contains security fix so we recommend all 1.9.1 users to upgrade your ruby.

The security vulnerabilities concern Ruby/DL, the API to load and use shared libraries.



Finally, the MagLev project is progressing steadily. An audio interview over at Akita on Rails, recorded at RailsConf'09 gives a good update on what's going on (the MagLev interview is the 2nd interview from the bottom). The interview contains tons of technical information, but also some release plans, such as plans for a public beta after Q2 and possible release of the MagLev source on GitHub.