From: Conrad Schneiker Date: 2000-06-30T17:51:52-05:00 Subject: [ruby-talk:03737] Re: Why it's quiet -- standard distribution issues Hi, Dave Thomas wrote: > Conrad Schneiker writes: > > > There is a big difference between so-called "hackers" (who don't mind > > fetching extra modules and dealing with the system administration and > > distribution issues of coordinating all this stuff) and more so-called > > "ordinary" end-users (and their managers) who avoid such things. > > Again, this comes back to the ease of acquiring and installing these > extra modules. Well, up to a point. That would certainly help in many cases, but there are always practical disadvantages for things that you can't universally count on. > The easier (and more foolproof) it is, the less of a > burden it will be to do it. The ultimate might even be a mode where > 'require's could contain a URL, and be satisfied locally from cache or > dynamically over the net. No user involvement at all. For those of us wanting to try out new or non-standard stuff, this would be great. However for reasons involving system administration (site configuration standardization, troubleshooting, keeping everyone at the same level) in the most widespread and most run-of-the-mill environments, this would also have disadvantages. Most users don't have always-on Internet connections. Many people don't want stuff changing behind their back on one hand, and on the other hand, many of the same people don't want to be dealing with pop-up dialogs asking if it's OK to fetch some random module that they are clueless about. So while I think dynamic updating will certainly be a nice capability to have (especially for products where Ruby is hidden away internally), I don't think it will ever mitigate the many practical advantages of stuff that is universally available out-of-the-box for most people, under most conditions, for a long time to come. Such dynamic updating developments are off in the future; and when it does come, it may take several versions before it really becomes suitable for general use. Including stuff in the standard distribution helps address the previously mentioned issues now, and I think that it will still be the most adequate solution for a long time to come, for the previously mentioned reasons. -- Conrad Schneiker (This note is unofficial and subject to improvement without notice.)