From: Stuart Ellis <stuart@...>
Date: 2010-08-16T22:13:44+09:00
Subject: Re: Unix Philosophy in Ruby Programing


On 16 Aug 2010, at 13:52, Marc Weber wrote:

> Excerpts from Diego Bernardes's message of Mon Aug 16 14:34:19 +0200 2010:
>> I use Linux about 5 years, but, this year that i started to "use" linux.
>> Now i understand a little more about the unix philosophy and some other
>> trick things windows dont do/have.
>> This changed the way i program. Ruby was build to help manage linux
>> systems, rigth?
>> 
>> So, this is the question, what you guys think about the way ruby
>> programs are made?
>> Why build a gem/program to send mail if you can send with sendmail?
>> Why build process monitor if you can use monit?
>> And so..
> Because Ruby applications also run on Mac, Windows, ....
> And because Ruby can send emails even if there is no sendmail installed
> etc. In contrast to Windows XX versions there is no such "Linux".
> there are thousands of different distributions which are all called
> "Linux".
> 
> In the end you don't have to use the Ruby packages. You can just use
> sendmail..
> 
> Another reason for duplicating work is that Ruby progrommers may find it
> easier to extend a Ruby program. Coding C takes more time.
> 
> I don't think there is an easy answer to your question.
> 
> Marc Weber

The number of platforms for Ruby seems to be increasing, particularly through JRuby (AppEngine, Android, IBM mainframe things), so it's probably increasingly unsafe to assume a UNIX-y host environment.

On the other side, John Leach gave a very good presentation about taking advantage of UNIX features in custom applications:

http://video2010.scottishrubyconference.com/show_video/6/1

---
Stuart Ellis
stuart@stuartellis.eu