From: Chad Fowler <chadfowler@...>
Date: 2004-10-07T04:24:50+09:00
Subject: Re: RubyGems and RPA

On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 04:11:12 +0900, Austin Ziegler <halostatue@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 03:00:45 +0900, Richard Kilmer <rich@infoether.com> wrote:
> > On 10/6/04 11:42 AM, "Eivind Eklund" <eeklund@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > If we can make this possible, it would be great - I think it could
> > > help raise adoption of Ruby a lot.  Conversely, if we make this
> > > harder, we lower the adoption.
> > I think you are ignoring a very important platform...Win32.  Realize that
> > Ruby is a very effective language for folks that merely want to automate
> > their platform, and most computer users are running Win32 (unfortunate, but
> > true).  For them, they want binary versions of libraries and a graphical
> > installer.  RubyGems does support win32, and will include a GUI for gems
> > management.
> 
> ...AND, we Win32 users don't want RubyGems (or any other packaging
> system) cluttering our normal installer.
> 

We had some good conversations with people (including you, I think) at
RubyConf about how an upcoming/proposed post-install hook might help
integrate with the Windows install registry.

So, it remains on the list with everything else that needs to get
done.  Will probably have to wait until we finalize how post-install
processing will work.

My sense is that most Windows users really _don't_ care too much about
this, but I believe it's important enough to put in for sake of
"rightness" and for the users who actually do care.

Chad