Re: standard libraries [was: 1.8.2 - what can we do to help?]

Francis Hwang wrote:

> 
> On Oct 27, 2004, at 10:18 AM, Markus wrote:
> 
>>      Let's say you are understandably frustrated.  I saw your post and
>> looked at it briefly, but nothing jumped out at me.  (I've haven't used
>> the CGI library much, and not recently).  That was about all I could do,
>> since I don't even own a Mac, at home or a work, and the only ones I
>> have access to are used by people who would not want me installing MSIE
>> on them.
>>
>>      If you want another pair of eyes to help you solve the problem I'll
>> be willing to help with looking and thinking, but that's about all I can
>> do.
>>
> 
> I appreciate the offer, but I think I'm more concerned about the general 
> policy than about my teensy little bug. (For the time I've just changed 
> my HTML forms to workaround it.)
> 
> Here's my concern: If a library is in the stdlib, then I think a 
> beginning Ruby user is going to assume a few things about it:
> 
> - it's mostly feature-complete
> - its interface is unlikely to change or grow in ways that causes 
> backwards compatibility problems
> - it's mostly bug-free
> - if I report what I believe to be a bug, somebody will be there to at 
> least help me through that process.



The was a post recently on ruby-talk on a related topic (it was yet 
another Python v Ruby post).  Essentially, the issue was that, outside 
of the core API, Ruby libraries are in assorted  states of immaturity, 
poorly documented, or non-existent.  Particularly so on Windows, making 
(so the argument goes) Ruby a mostly Unix-centric language.

What crossed my mind (and I'm thinking out loud here, and I've not had 
enough coffee, so take this all as food for thought) was that two years 
ago there was a post decrying the state of Ruby documentation.  After a 
lengthy and interesting thread,  it was conceded that the docs needed 
serious help, and the current Ruby Documentation Project was born.

So I wonder if there is a similar need for a Ruby Library Project, where 
a deliberate, public effort is made to ensure that a) the std-lib code 
is complete and maintained, with an assurance that the code is just as 
supported as the base language, and b) (maybe) push to improve or 
acquire 3rd-party libs such as are common in Perl & Python?

James