However, there are several problems with Gherkin 2:
- It's very difficult to build, so releases are very infrequent
- It doesn't work on recent Ruby versions for Windows
- It's hard to add support for new platforms
- It does too much (and not enough)
- Big: One parser for each i18n language
Gáspár Nagy (of SpecFlow fame) has done a tremendous job with Gherkin 3. (I had a failed attempt at Gherkin 3 two years ago).
Gherkin 3 solves all of the problems with Gherkin 2:
- Easy to build
- Works on any Ruby (and JavaScript, .NET and Java/JVM)
- Easy to add support for new platforms
- Ignorant about reporting (not doing too much)
- Compiles the AST to a simpler structure for Cucumber (simplifies Cucumber)
- Small: Single scanner/parser to support all 60+ i18n languages.
Hopefully we'll be able to roll Gherkin 3 into one of the cukes in the next few months.....
Aslak