From: MikkelFJ <mikkelfj-anti-spam@...>
Date: 2003-03-15T21:45:00+09:00
Subject: Re: The onion truck strikes again ... Announcing rake


"Jim Weirich" <jweirich@one.net> wrote in message
news:1047700803.26404.123.camel@traken...
> Ok, let me state from the beginning that I never intended to write this
> code.  I'm not convinced it is useful, and I'm not convinced anyone
> would even be interested in it.  All I can say is that Why's onion truck
> must by been passing through the Ohio valley.
>
> What am I talking about? ... A Ruby version of Make.

For inspiration, please also look at the AAP tool I posted a link to
yesterday. It's inspired by SCons.
Both SCons and AAP are using plugable dependecy scanners and signatures.
Signatures are much better than the timestamp approach.
AAP were almost choosing Ruby for scripting but got conservative and chose
python. AAP also deals with distribution (like rpgk), but it is a make tool.
I'd love a make tool in Ruby, and I was part of discussion on the topic
about a year ago. I also hacked a bit on a Ruby make tool, but dropped in in
favor of SCons.

Today I'm a bit torn - I'd prefer a tool in Ruby, but I'd also like a tool
that is useful for many languages and tasks - it doesn't make sense for each
language to have its own tool. Perhaps it is time to support an approach
like AAP although it is scripted in Python.

On the other hand, Ruby could provide yet another build alternative and
prove to be the better choice.

In any case Rake is propably genuinely useful in its own right as it would
make common scripting tasks in Ruby easier.

Mikkel