From: Conrad Schneiker <schneiker@...>
Date: 2000-02-24T04:16:56-06:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:01563] Ruby supported/distributed libraries--can all be used together?

(Found on comp.lang.misc.)

What problems would presently (or indefinitely) exist for doing the
following?

Let's say you have a really grandiose Ruby application that tries to
function as a general purpose assistant with respect to all the things that
the modules in the supported Ruby distribution can do. Let's say you have a
very fast file system and many 100s of megabytes of RAM. For purposes of
minimizing startup time, could _all_ the modules first be imported, then
initialized, and finally, could the process execution image at that point be
saved for subsequent restarting, at which point the main program would
proceed? Are there problems with dynamic linking of Ruby extensions and such
that would thwart any substantial time savings? Are there any modules that
set global variables in incompatible ways upon initialization?

In the event that there are no insuperable showstoppers at this point, is
there anything that would preclude you from eventually including all modules
from the future greater Ruby archive? If so, is there some half way
reasonable criteria for writing modules that would make this feasible?

Conrad