From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2003-12-17T05:38:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie questions

Luke A. Kanies wrote:
> 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 <library>' 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.

The nascent RubyGems project is a big step toward dealing with this
issue.

Hal