From: ptkwt@...1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2003-05-07T04:10:39+09:00
Subject: Re: A wishlist for a "Ruby Standard Library"

In article <1052233322.3293.19.camel@mizar>,
Aredridel  <aredridel@nbtsc.org> wrote:
>> > Not quite included -- it's a separate package to compile and install.
>> 
>> I meant 'included in sumo'
>
>Aha!  I had no idea that Ruby-sumo was that sort of "fat" distribution. 
>I like what I see.
>
>It might be really nice if it was pushed as a fairly normal/standard way
>to install addon packages... mention right under the source download on
>ruby-lang.org, even.
>

There have been a few projects to try to do this:
 raainstall
 rpkg
 <others>

....but getting people to adopt one of them and use it consistently has 
been akin to herding cats.

We really do need a good, uniform install/dependency management system, 
IMHO it's THE most important thing that Ruby urgently  needs at this 
point.  It gets brought up and discussed on a seemingly quarterly basis.  
Discussion goes on for a week or two after it's brought up and then nothing 
much happens.

Personally, I would like to see one of these install systems (probably 
raainstall) included in the 1.8 final release.  It's certainly not perfect 
yet, but if everyone has it and uses it, it would be a big step. (we can 
always improve it later).  Until an install/dependency management system
shows up in the standard Ruby distribution there will be no perception 
that there is a standard way of doing these things...

Phil