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Re: rails: New upstream release 2.3.5



Adam Majer dijo [Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 11:36:23AM -0600]:
> This may be correct, but if you look at C/C++ ABI and API, they are not
> stable either. Yet, it is possible to install multiple versions of a
> given library. C/C++ linker address this problem. In Ruby, that linker
> is currently gems at runtime.
> 
> How do you propose we support multiple versions, like C/C++ does?

Thing is with C/C++ libraries a SONAME bump is regarded as an
important step, and avoided if at all possible. Inconveniences are
known, migrations are feared. In Ruby, new Gems flow breaking API
compatibility with a frustratingly high frequency.

> (…)
> Finally, rubygems has become a defacto standard of distributing ruby
> software. For many developers, the .tar.gz is going away completely in
> ruby. I think if 3rd party software wants to pull in libfoo gem, it
> should first attempt to use the Debian package instead of a 3rd party
> gem.

This is, however, true. We do experience user frustration because
things do not work the same in Debian and elsewhere. And we are not in
a comfortable position at all :(

> PS. No blame or faults. But if we try to keep with the perfect
> scenario, it will become more difficult to package ruby
> applications. And we will be unable to provide transitions (without
> changing library names, which is the rougher end of the stick).

Adam, I am very happy you joined the discussion, and you are getting
more involved in pkg-ruby-extras - No, we (the group) have not come
out to invite you, but as Rails is such a popular Ruby application,
and as several of us are Rails developers... It is a common discussion
point. You may know we have had several interesting Ruby-related
discussions in past DebConfs. I would love to meet you and be able to
discuss and work this over - Do you plan on attending DebConf at New
York? The high bandwidth of a room we are physically located might
help us quite a bit.

Greetings,

-- 
Gunnar Wolf • gwolf@gwolf.org • (+52-55)5623-0154 / 1451-2244


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