From: Sean Chittenden <sean@...>
Date: 2002-10-23T13:51:39+09:00
Subject: Re: RAA.succ?

> > Because you can get stuck in a _very_ extended upgrade cycle as
> > soon as you start sucking on any one package! Even worse the cycle
> > is not gauranteed to land you with a mutually compatible set of
> > module versions!
> 
> I've never had that happen. Can you give an example?
> 
> > What really is needed is a "Batteries Included" ruby distribution
> > that will have all (reasonably) prime time RAA modules at the
> > latest (mutually compatible) version.
> 
> Who defines the best?

NOOO!  Fight this urge!!  Perl did this and it's an unweildy
nightmare.  So much so that FreeBSD cut it loose and is no longer
including it in the base install.  Of course it's available from a
port, but still...  I'd love to see Ruby included as a base language
but this'll never happen with the "let's just bundle it with the
interpeter" kind of attitude that Perl has addopted.  Blah.  Who wants
to be like that??!!

Instead, I'm of the minimalist+dependencies mindset that it should be
possible to install a module and have that installation install the
required dependencies as needed.  This is the aim of rubynet.  Again,
help on the project is appreciated.  Here are some sample CLI
invocations:

rubynet --install c:libxml2
rubynet --install libxml
rubynet --install Net::GeoIP

Please note that the 'c:' is a package namespace prefix that will have
rubynet install the C library libxml2.  Yes, rubynet will support
wrapping around C modules and will actually be generic enough to fit
around most applications.

For those curious, the design criteria for rubynet comes from blending
CPAN and FreeBSD's ports system.  I'm scheming to have rubynet fill
all of FreeBSD's ports requirements that way as the need for complex
ports grows, Ruby might be allowed to sneak in as a base langugage for
the OS.  ::grin::

http://lists.rubynet.org/lists/listinfo/rubynet-devel

-sc

-- 
Sean Chittenden