From: "Luke A. Kanies" Date: 2003-12-17T05:05:05+09:00 Subject: Re: Newbie questions We've discussed a parallel to perldoc, but what about CPAN? I know that we have RAA, but CPAN's recursive auto-installer is one of the really big reasons so many non-programmers can use perl-based software. People are much less likely to reinvent the wheel if it's easy for them to explore existing wheels, and people are much more likely to use your ruby-based software if they just have to type 'cran install ' and know it will download, compile, and install everything. Perl's CPAN has saved me hours and hours. It's especially nice when you're going to new machines, for instance at new clients, because a couple short commands and a coffee break are all that are necessary to get the complete latest and greatest list of all the modules you normally use. Even better, if you want you can write your own bundle that contains everything you want to install. Then it's just one command. I think having an equivalent to CPAN will help more than anything else, because all things flow from access. If people can easily get software, they're much more likely to contribute documentation to that software. The barrier to downloading and installing ruby modules (small as it may be) is one of the things keeping perl coders away, and I know it was the main reason I hesitated. Luke -- Once...in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were forced to live on nothing but food and water for days. -- W. C. Fields