Re: Ruby packaging in wheezy: gem2deb, new policy, etc.

[Lucas Nussbaum <lucas@lucas-nussbaum.net>]

On 19/01/11 at 12:44 -0600, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> Lucas Nussbaum dijo [Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 08:33:02PM +0100]:
> > > How is the compatibility between implementations right now? If a
> > > package works across interpreters (it should be human-tested! Maybe
> > > running its test suite with the different available interpreters would
> > > do, although I don't want to do it for every uploaded package...),
> > 
> > Why wouldn't you want to do it with every available interpreter? That's
> > what is implemented in gem2deb currently.
> 
> Run the test suite four times per package, once with each interpreter?
> Well, of course it gives better coverage... But some test suites are
> quite long to run. And if we reach a stage where the different
> interpreters are compatible enough, it might be pointless. 
> 
> Also, it bloats our build-dependencies. If I have to install
> traditional Ruby, Java (to get jruby) and Mono (to get IronRuby), and
> whatever it takes to run Rubinius... Well, setups will be huge.

Who cares? I don't think that we should trade off quality for build
time.

> > > it can depend on ruby-interpreter. If it breaks, say, under jruby,
> > > it could depend on ruby-traditional | rubinius. It would be a win
> > > and would as you said, encourage advance and homogeneization of
> > > the implementations.
> > 
> > Well, if we use alternatives to select the ruby interpreter, a complex
> > dependency scheme doesn't bring us anything, since it would still be
> > possible for the users to shoot themselves in the foot.
> 
> Do you think Ruby has reached a stability point where it can be
> handled through alternatives? i.e. where a user can change
> /usr/bin/ruby to point from ruby to jruby and expect random programs
> not to break?

No. But we could do like Java: support the default version, do our best
with alternative implementations, but provide a way for users to switch
implementations if they want to, since it makes it easier for them to
test with several implementations.

It's a very common request, and one that is fullfilled with RVM, which
proves that there's interest for it.

- Lucas