From: Timon Christl Date: 2003-01-23T21:43:48+09:00 Subject: Re: Can we attack the 'not enough libraries' thing straight on? On Thu, 23 Jan 2003 11:51:18 +0900, Tim Bates wrote > On Thu, 23 Jan 2003 01:12 pm, ahoward wrote: >> this is one idea CPAN lacks - a central set of standards which modules must >> conform to (unit testing for modules?) and a way to separte the really good >> modules from all the chatter and useless crap... > > Debian GNU/Linux gets this just right, IMHO. They have a policy that packages > wishing to be placed on their central set of package mirrors must adhere to, > a proper dependency system, mirroring of packages so they're always available > and not dependant on the author's personal server/ISP (one of my pet hates > about RAA), command-line and curses tools for installing/removing/viewing > packages and their dependancies, policies concerning the quality, quantity > and location of documentation, etc... This packaging system is the one and > only reason I use Debian over any other Linux distribution. It would take a > significant amount of effort to get such a beast running for Ruby, but once > done I think the benefits would be phenomenal. I would like to contribute a few thoughts on the topic. When installing additional ruby packages the first thing you have to do currently is looking into the README file to see if the package is installed via ruby extconf.rb && make && make test && make site-install or ruby install.rb or ruby install.rb config && ruby install.rb setup && ruby install.rb install or perhaps it's something completely different (The example commands above were taken from: ruby-gnome-all-0.29, rdoc-beta-1, date2-3). It would be very nice if installation works just like software written using GNU autoconf (./configure && make && make install). All the package managers of the various linux distributions use a uniform way of installation, generally something like "retrieve that thing from harddisk/from the web, unpack it, then run a certain script with a fixed, predefined name to actually install it". What exactly that script does it not important, but the interface should not vary. My proposition would be: installation of ruby modules is done via ruby install.rb which configures the package, builds it and installs it. Nothing more and nothing less. -- Timon Christl AIM: sgmfragcollector ICQ: 172280602