From: Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
Date: 2002-06-28T01:59:01+09:00
Subject: Re: help (ruby-talk ML)

Bob Calco <robert.calco@verizon.net> writes:

> Yes, I would gladly volunteer considerable effort to this end. I
> have considerable Windows System level programming that I'd like to
> contribute to, particularly, the multithreading issues noted
> elsewhere as a weakness in the distribution.

That's great. In fact, changes to the basic Ruby interpreter and
runtime don't need a project on SF: all you have to do is check out
the source code from ruby-lang and set to it. I'm sure that Matz will
be happy to accept patches, and will likely make folks who produce
good work committers in the tree.

If you do do work n this area, I'd encourage you to update the rubicon
tests accordingly: Chad Fowler (among others) spent some time getting
the tests more stable under Windows, so we can now start using
them. If there's a feature that's broken that isn't in the tests,
write a test that fails, then fix the interpreter and watch the test
pass. If there are tests that are currently not run on Windows because
of compatibility problems, let's make them run. 

I'd love to see a couple of Window's efforts get started in earnest:
one to beef up Windows support in the interpreter and its libraries,
and the other to have the community work towards building a standard
Windows distribution that we can all agree on. Pragmatic Programmers
may not have the resources of ActiveState, but as a community we have
considerably more. It just needs coordinating.


Cheers (and thanks)


Dave