From: Eivind Eklund <eeklund@...>
Date: 2005-10-03T17:49:29+09:00
Subject: Re: why can't Ruby load .gem files directly?

On 10/3/05, Austin Ziegler <halostatue@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/2/05, Devin Mullins <twifkak@comcast.net> wrote:
> > Eivind Eklund wrote:
> >> On 10/2/05, Devin Mullins <twifkak@comcast.net> wrote:
> >>>`gem uninstall thegems`
> >> What if other stuff rely on those gems?  Like user-written code?
> > OK, point. What does apt-get (or ports) do natively to fix this?
>
> Nothing. Nothing at all, which makes it something of a nonsense
> question.

Actually, at least ports does something about this, though it's
somewhat subtle: It leaves the dependencies behind, and
listable/deletable by the user using the standard tools.

This avoids breaking user code, at the expense of fairly often leaving
unwanted packages behind.

> I'm in the middle of discussions so that we can possibly solve this in a
> way that at *least* makes the most complex case feasible without adding
> all sorts of nonsense requirements to the developer or RubyGems. I
> maintain that RubyGems is the *right* solution for Ruby because it both
> helps with package management and with API versioning. I also believe
> that the *right* way for package management systems to work with
> RubyGems is to *use* RubyGems and the facilities it offers (or will
> offer) to install gems.

I also think that an integration is the way to go.  I am uninterested
in which package manager does the actual file copy; I just think the
metadata (at least that the package is installed) needs to be
available from both for things to work right.

The FreeBSD CPAN integration is such that when I install a package
using CPAN, it show up in the local *FreeBSD* package database, and
believe I install a Perl package using ports it also show up in the
local CPAN metadata (though I'll admit I never look at that, so I
don't know.)  This also mostly follow my local operating system
policies.

I hope we can find some way of achieving the same or better
integration with RubyGems - I think the way to get there is to just
solve one problem at a time, until things work right.

Eivind.