From: mathew <meta@...>
Date: 2005-10-13T22:16:54+09:00
Subject: Re: [RH bug number] Re: ruby in the government - 1.6.x -> 1.8.x woes

Daniel Hobe wrote:
> I've never understood why people stay away from packages (be they
> RPMs, debs or whatever).

Because the collection of packages is almost always incomplete.

For example, I wanted to get blosxom running, with some plugins. The 
plugins used standard CPAN libraries--but there were no RPMs of some of 
those CPAN libraries available.

Now, I can use CPAN to install the missing libraries--but CPAN doesn't 
know about RPM, so it also pulls in libraries for which there *are* 
RPMs. And now I have multiple versions of the same libraries battling it 
out.

So basically, RPMs and debs are counterproductive as soon as there are 
libraries missing from the selection available. That's why on ruby-core 
I suggested that the solution was to make RPM and APT use RubyGems to 
handle Ruby packages--bundle the .gem and appropriate other metadata 
into an RPM or .deb. Also, make the process of turning a gem into a 
package close enough to automated that I can make .debs for the missing 
gems I need.


mathew
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