From: Daniel Carrera <dcarrera@...>
Date: 2003-01-23T11:21:31+09:00
Subject: Re: Can we attack the 'not enough libraries' thing straight on?

> So, all you almost-satisfied Ruby programmers, what's missing? :-)

<disclaimer>These are opinions.  Other people might disagree</disclaimer>

1) Find a more accessible domain name.  www.ruby-lang.org/raa is not as 
easy to remember as www.cpan.org.  Unfortunatelly 
(ruby|cran|raa).(org|net) are all taken.

2) I agree with the idea of naming conventions.

3) RAA is hard to browse.  I think that a setup of the style of
www.search.cpan.org is best.

On Thu, Jan 23, 2003 at 10:36:31AM +0900, dblack@candle.superlink.net wrote:
> Hi --
> 
> We've all heard this: "Ruby is great, but it doesn't have the
> equivalent of CPAN."
> 
> I'm not saying it's not true... but I'm getting worried that we're
> settling into a culture where Ruby is "that great language that
> doesn't have the equivalent of CPAN," and that as that reputation
> spreads, it's going to be harder to shake it off later -- even when
> lots more modules have been written.
> 
> So: is there a process by which we can identify *exactly* what all the
> missing modules are?  And then write them? :-)
> 
> The role of CPAN in all this needs to be kept in perspective.  There's
> no obligation on [the] Ruby[ community]'s part to duplicate CPAN
> module by module.  In fact, it's quite interesting to look at other
> archives, such as <http://www.haskell.org/libraries>.
> 
> Also, I would advocate not getting embroiled in issues of naming,
> specifically hierarchical module naming (text/soundex,
> algorithms/sort/qsort, etc.).  The main thing is for software to come
> into existence, and for its availability to be publicized.  If we try
> to work out in advance questions like who gets to write the
> authoritative x/y/z module, etc., the chances are fairly good that
> nothing will ever get done.
> 
> So, all you almost-satisfied Ruby programmers, what's missing? :-)
> 
> 
> David
> 
> -- 
> David Alan Black
> home: dblack@candle.superlink.net
> work: blackdav@shu.edu
> Web:  http://pirate.shu.edu/~blackdav
> 
> 

-- 
Daniel Carrera
Graduate Teaching Assistant.  Math Dept.
University of Maryland.  (301) 405-5137