[ruby-talk:02835] Re: file.size, OS dependency and Ruby look killer?

Aleksi Niemel<[e-mail]> writes:

> Of course both of these cases can be worked out (one can overwrite current
> functionality with own versions, or simply create own libraries), but I
> think Ruby is not promoting easiness of such thing by well thought,
> organized and implemented interfaces for system, OS or platform dependent
> feature importation.

OK, but then look at the code of the interpreter, or the code of
Perl, or any other "portable" piece of C. What do you find in the
interface code? Hundreds of nested #ifdefs, all checking for the
availability of features and sub-features.

If you make feature selection a programmer responsibility, then won't
the Ruby scripts end up being equally ugly?

My preference is to say that you don't do anything special to use
features. If they aren't present, then methods implementing that
feature return some distinguished value to tell you.

_HOWEVER_ I would like to see the equivalent of rbconfig.rb that gave
me a list of feature test predicates so I can see what's available on
any particular platform.



Dave