From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2008-04-12T13:52:49+09:00
Subject: Re: Looking for Hidden Gems

On Apr 11, 2008, at 14:39 PM, James Gray wrote:
> I'm hunting for some gems that are under loved, off the beaten path,  
> poorly documented, or just lesser known yet still wickedly useful.   
> I think something like NArray or RBTree falls into this category.
>
> I would love to receive other suggestions.  Send me links to the  
> projects you don't see used all the time but you just couldn't live  
> without.  Please send code with your suggestions or point me towards  
> some code on the Web if you can, so I can understand how to use the  
> project.
>
> I'm collecting this information for a conference speech I'm  
> planning, by the way.

We just crossed 3,000 gems last week, so here's the oldest ~ 3%:

require 'rubygems'
require 'rubygems/source_info_cache'

si = Gem::SourceInfoCache.cache_data[Gem.sources.first].source_index

puts si.map { |n,spec| spec }.sort_by { |spec|  
spec.date }.first(100).map { |spec| spec.full_name }

progressbar-0.0.3
cgikit-1.1.0
statistics-2001.2.28
Ook-1.0.2
RubyJDWP-0.0.1
log4r-1.0.5
dbdbd-0.2.2
rdf-0.3
keyedlist-0.4.0
captcha-0.1.2
rublog-0.8.0
fingerserver-0.4.0
ikko-0.1
regexp-engine-0.9
stream-0.5
VRTools-0.0.1
rvsh-0.4.5
libgnucap-ruby-0.1
iterator-0.8
csbattery-0.2.2
csinterface-0.6.2
sds-0.3
ObjectGraph-1.0.1
ruby-doom-0.8
cstemplate-0.5.1
kreed-0.0.2
neelix-0.0.3
ladspar-0.1
cardinal-0.1.0
mw-template-0.9.1
MultipartAlternativeLite-0.0.1
ncurses-0.9.1
ruby-cache-0.3.0
XMMS-Ruby-0.1.2
Joystick-Ruby-0.1.0
rdf-redland-0.5.1.3
aversa-0.3
BlueCloth-1.0.0
sqlite-2.0.1
copland-lib-0.1.0
copland-remote-0.1.0
copland-webrick-0.1.0
an-app-0.0.3
packrat-0.1.0
libxosd2-ruby-0.4
libxosd-ruby-0.4
rlirc-0.3.1
swin-2004.03.14-x86-mswin32
vruby-2004.08.07
wxrubylayouts-0.0.3
termios-0.9.4
Syndic8-Ruby-0.2.0
Technorati-Ruby-0.1.0
ctapi-0.2.2
jobserver-0.1.4
Rubilicious-0.1.2
yip-0.8.2
complearn-0.6.2
Rodo-1.1
dnssd-0.6.0
copland-1.0.0
dev-utils-1.0.1
SimpleSearch-0.5.0
diff-lcs-1.1.2
xhtmldiff-1.0.0
formvalidator-0.1.3
jpeg2pdf-0.12
algorithm-diff-0.1
test-unit-mock-0.30
io-reactor-0.05
ruvi-0.4.12
crosscase-0.0.1
posixlock-0.0.1
latex-0.1.3
text-highlight-1.0.2
IO-Reactor-0.0.6
rubypants-0.2.0
Ruby-MemCache-0.0.1
sstruct-1.0.1
needle-extras-1.0.0
realrand-1.0.2
hprevalence-0.2.0
genx4r-0.05
libbz2-0.4
Asami-0.04
extensions-0.6.0
text-hyphen-1.0.0
PrettyException-0.9.5
tex-hyphen-0.5.0
ruwiki-0.9.3
net-tftp-0.1.0
xmlresume2x-0.2.1
creditcard-1.0
Bloglines4R-0.1.0
x10-cm17a-1.0.1
x10-cm17a-1.0.1-x86-mswin32
text-reform-0.2.0
dbus-0.1.10
sqlite-ruby-2.2.3
sqlite-ruby-2.2.3-x86-mswin32

The oldest in this list, progressbar-0.0.3 has a date of:

$ gem spec -r progressbar | grep date
date: 2004-03-13 05:56:48.508436 -08:00

The newest in this list:

$ gem spec -r sqlite-ruby | grep date
date: 2005-01-29 21:00:00 -08:00