From: Charles Hixson <charleshixsn@...>
Date: 2001-01-07T06:10:02+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:8762] Re: Visions for 2001/1.7.x development?

Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote:

> Hi,
> ...
> 
> |* Ruby-enforced (or at least supported) way to versioning of
> |  scripts/extensions. Can be used both from Ruby code ("require
> |  'BitVector' {VERSION >= 1.6}") and from RAA-installer ("raa-get
> |  Bitvector 1.6.1"). Different versions can co-exist on my Ruby set-up.
> 
> I like the basic idea.  But I still don't have concrete strategy to
> make it possible.
> ...
> 							matz.

This is a very good idea, if possible.  I would encourage the allowing 
of fairly complex expressions for the version calculation, and that 
versions be specified by a string rather than a float.  Then this would 
suggest that pattern matching for the version specification.  Of course 
a complex boolean would be easier to understand {ver >= "1.6" && ver != 
"1.6.3b" && ver < "2."} and a function would be more flexible...

One thing that this would require is a method for keeping several 
different versions of the same code around, probably by requiring 
something like the filename to be embedded in the second line of the 
file (not the first line, as that would interfere with the #!/usr/... 
convention).

(The boolean would likely be a good idea.  I don't think that the 
function would be.)