instead of using the json gem, or trying to require yajl, lets use multi json which takes care of this for us and includes a vendored json implementation if one is not available

Author: joshk

lib/resque.rb

@@ -1,11 +1,5 @@
 require 'redis/namespace'
 
-begin
-  require 'yajl'
-rescue LoadError
-  require 'json'
-end
-
 require 'resque/version'
 
 require 'resque/errors'

lib/resque/helpers.rb

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+require 'multi_json'
+
 module Resque
   # Methods used by various classes in Resque.
   module Helpers
@@ -11,29 +13,17 @@ def redis
     # Given a Ruby object, returns a string suitable for storage in a
     # queue.
     def encode(object)
-      if defined? Yajl
-        Yajl::Encoder.encode(object)
-      else
-        object.to_json
-      end
+      ::MultiJson.encode(object)
     end
 
     # Given a string, returns a Ruby object.
     def decode(object)
       return unless object
 
-      if defined? Yajl
-        begin
-          Yajl::Parser.parse(object, :check_utf8 => false)
-        rescue Yajl::ParseError => e
-          raise DecodeException, e
-        end
-      else
-        begin
-          JSON.parse(object)
-        rescue JSON::ParserError => e
-          raise DecodeException, e
-        end
+      begin
+        ::MultiJson.decode(object)
+      rescue ::MultiJson::DecodeError => e
+        raise DecodeException, e
       end
     end
 

resque.gemspec

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.add_dependency "redis-namespace", "~> 1.0.2"
   s.add_dependency "vegas",           "~> 0.1.2"
   s.add_dependency "sinatra",         ">= 0.9.2"
-  s.add_dependency "json",            ">= 1.4.6", "< 1.6"
+  s.add_dependency "multi_json",      "~> 1.0"
 
   s.description = <<description
     Resque is a Redis-backed Ruby library for creating background jobs,