[ruby-talk:03737] Re: Why it's quiet -- standard distribution issues

Hi,

Dave Thomas wrote:

> Conrad Schneiker <[e-mail]> 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.)