From: Edmond Kachale <edmond.kachale@...>
Date: 2010-09-21T20:02:07+09:00
Subject: {Detached} Mysql Gem and beyond: Fixing, Supporting and Celebrating

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2010/9/20 Luis Lavena <luislavena@gmail.com>

> On Sep 20, 12:34 pm, Edmond Kachale <edmond.kach...@baobabhealth.org>
> wrote:
> > Younes,
> >
> > I stopped using mysql gem. The whole gem is messed up seriously.
> >
>
> Really? How? Please provide the real details.
>
> I package the MySQL/Ruby extension as a gem and tested in Ubuntu, Snow
> Leopard, Leopard and even Windows.
>
> Please be more specific on what you mean by that.
>
> It is clear from the mkmf.log output that either the wrong mysql or
> the wrong compilation options are attempted to be feed into the
> compile process.
>
> --
> Luis Lavena
>

Sorry my fellow Rubyster. I did not intend to hurt you by this mail. I
really appreciate every effort that each developer puts on the gems/plugins
that we have around. For sure this cannot be taken for granted.

But when I said "The whole gem is messed up seriously.", I actually meant
that. It might not be you, but something else beyond your imagination,
something else beyond your control. It might be the change in the OS
architecture that has "messed up" the cool gem. And above all, as you
rightly put it, it might be the user's way of installing essential
applications and libraries. All these may "mess up" the nice mysql gem. All
in all, I was necessarily pushing the whole blame on the developer. (May be
my tone was wrong).

I install ruby and mysql as follows:
sudo apt-get install ruby mysql-server libmysql-ruby mysql-client
mysql-server ruby libopenssl-ruby mysql-server-core rubygems

I have a script

I do not know if there is any problem in installing like this. I like using
apt-get/aptitude to make sure install those packages that are recommended by
Canonical/Debian.

Personally, there was only one time mysql gem worked for me. It was last
year, and the gem was an earlier version. Thereafter, it has never worked
for me. When I googled, I found that other people had similar problems with
the mysql gem (Check this one out: http://bit.ly/diSVJP).

Every Rubyster knows and appreciates that this gem is cool and significant.
I think what is needed is to get more support from the Ruby community and
work on the *"usual"* errors ((RuntimeError) ERROR: *Failed to build gem
native extension*). My feeling is any gem should be easy to install even for
*"non-developers"* (such as software deployment officers) just by the touch
of the "*gem install"* command.  The gem should resolve all the dependencies
and supporting libraries within itself.

Let everyone get me clear, I am not blaming the mysql gem core-developer or
anyone for anything. But I think we can help our fellow friend in fixing the
gem. We can folk it on GitHub <http://github.com/luislavena/mysql-gem>, play
with it on our local machines and share our experiences with the core
developer, just as other gems have received similar attention. Then we can
celebrate the victory together as a fraternity.

Regards,


Edmond
Software Developer | Baobab Health Trust (http://www.baobabhealth.org/) |
Malawi
Cell:  +265 999 465 137 | +265 881 234 717
*"Every Rubygem has its own gemspec" -- Edmond Kachale*

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