From: Tim Ferrell <Tim.Ferrell@...0nspark.com>
Date: 2005-08-31T07:24:59+09:00
Subject: A (newbie-ish) question about project organization

Hello everyone -

I am just getting comfortable with ruby, having come over from the Java / .NET 
world and I am a little confused about best practices regarding namespaces and 
project organization.

I have wrapped all of the classes in my current project in a namespace using 
modules but am a bit confused about how I should structure the files in the 
filesystem... I am used to having a project layout that follows the namespace 
hierarchy. For example:

project
   (misc project docs)
src
   s0nspark
     app
       my_app.rb <- main app entry point	
       my_app/
         an_app_lib/		
     ext
       (extensions to ruby classes)
     lib
       some_lib.rb <- main library stub loader thingie
       some_lib/
       another_lib.rb		
       another_lib
     util
       some_util						

Is this feasible with ruby or am I opening up a bag of worms here? To be 
specific, would it be "right" to define the namespace for "some_lib" above like so:

   module s0nspark
     module libs
       module some_lib

	(a class goes here)

       end
     end
   end	
	
... and then require the lib in an app that uses it like so:

   require "s0nspark/libs/some_lib.rb"        		 	

with all of the necessary lib files loaded in some_lib.rb?

Would it be unwise to use relative paths for files that are loaded/required 
within some_lib.rb? Is this making sense?

Thanks for any assistance in helping me cut through my fog... :-)

Cheers,
Tim