From: Dave@...
Date: 2003-04-15T15:04:21+09:00
Subject: Ruby Weekly News


   Ruby Weekly News: 04/14/2003

   A summary of activity on the ruby-talk mailing list, brought to you
   this week by Bruce Williams.

   ANNOUNCEMENTS
   =============

   Text::Format v0.63
          Austin Zeigler released v0.63 of Text::Format, which provides
          strong text formatting capabilities to Ruby. Based on Perl's
          Text::Format 0.52, it offers all of the functionality of that
          module as well as new capabilities. This version is a bugfix
          release. Get Text::Format([1]).

   ri for Ruby 1.8
          Dave Thomas released a very preliminary version of 'ri' for
          Ruby 1.8. This release includes documentation on two new
          built-in classes and a new built-in module. It also includes
          roughly 130 new or significantly modified methods.

          Dave has started a wiki page([2]) to collect feedback for the
          release. Download the new Ruby Interactive reference([3]).

   DataVision v0.7.7
          Jim Menard has released version 0.7.7 of DataVision, an Open
          Source reporting tool similar to Crystal Reports. Reports can
          be designed using a drag-and-drop GUI, printed, or exported in
          a variety of formats.

          DataVision is written in Java but uses Ruby as its scripting
          language. Check out DataVision([4]).

   RFC 2047
          Sam Roberts has made the initial release of his RFC 2047
          decoding library. RFC 2047([5]), , describes how to use
          non-ascii character sets in internet mail. This library allows
          you to convert a string that may include RFC 2047 encoded
          characters to a given character set using iconv.

          Get it directly from the ruby-talk post([6]).

   FreeRIDE v0.5.0 RC2
          Curt Hibbs announced FreeRIDE v0.5.0 Release Candidate 2,
          available from the FreeRIDE website([7]). FreeRIDE aims to be a
          full-featured, first-class IDE on a par with those available
          for other languages, with all the best-of-breed features that
          you would expect in a high-end IDE

          In its current state, FreeRIDE cannot yet be called a real IDE.
          What it does have is a stable infrastructure with all the
          working plumbing needed for the hordes of anxious Ruby
          developers that want to create plugins to extend the
          functionality of FreeRIDE. The FreeRIDE team will be working on
          such FreeRIDE plugins that we will individually release to
          incrementally improve the FreeRIDE system. Support FreeRIDE by
          getting it([8]) and coding those plugins!

   INTERESTING THREADS
   ===================

   Call for standardised package installation procedure
          As Ruby gains in popularity, the community has become more and
          more concerned with standardization, especially with regard to
          library packaging. This thread rehashes the subject, bringing
          several valid points to bear.

   Array Subtraction
          In this thread started by Jim Freeze, a change of behavior on
          the part of Array#- in Ruby 1.8.0 is exposed and explained.

References

   1. http://raa.ruby-lang.org/list.rhtml?name=text-format
   2. http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?RIOnePointEight
   3. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=42128
   4. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=33343
   5. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2047.txt
   6. http://www.ruby-talk.org/blade/69323
   7. http://www.rubyide.org/
   8. http://www.rubyide.org/