From: Kevin Walzer <kw@...>
Date: 2009-03-09T23:58:16+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] MacRuby 0.4

Laurent,

Laurent Sansonetti wrote:

> 
> MacRuby is a version of Ruby 1.9, ported to run directly on top of Mac
> OS X core technologies such as the Objective-C common runtime and
> garbage collector, and the CoreFoundation framework. While still a
> work in progress, it is the goal of MacRuby to enable the creation of
> full-fledged Mac OS X applications which do not sacrifice performance
> in order to enjoy the benefits of using Ruby.


MacRuby is an interesting project. I see that it is installable as a 
framework in /Library/Frameworks. I am curious about one thing: have you 
thought about contributing the build/configure bits that allow MacRuby 
to be built as a framework back to the main Ruby developers, so that 
mainline Ruby itself can be built as a framework? Apple's system build 
of Ruby builds in this fashion as well. However, as far as I can tell, 
these kinds of builds are not supported by mainline Ruby on OS X.

It would be great if one could download the current stable version of 
Ruby, and run "./configure --enable-framework" and have everything build 
and install in /Library/Frameworks, perhaps with symlinks in 
/usr/local/bin for the executables. Python and Tcl on the Mac already 
have this capability, and since it appears the work to get Ruby set up 
as a (non-system) framework has already been done, it should just be a 
matter of getting it fed upstream and committed.

The benefits of this for developers are numerous. It would build Ruby in 
a Mac-standard fashion, and it would make deploying standalone 
applications that rely on Ruby a simpler process.

Thoughts or suggestions about this are appreciated.

Regards,
Kevin

-- 
Kevin Walzer
Code by Kevin
http://www.codebykevin.com