Dave Thomas Wrote:

# Following the raging success of my last RCR, here's other.
# 
# I'm finding myself using Ruby with XML more and more. However, I'm
# reluctant to distribute applications that use xmlparser, as it forces
# the applications' users to install both expat and the xml module.
# 
# So, I'm proposing that we include these in the Ruby core, and
# therefore make them globally available. The expat license allows this,
# so I suspect the main problem might be one of size (expat will add
# about 200k to the download).

Hmm. Where have I seen this before. Maybe it was in:

    http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/11619

Where almost 100 hours ago Conrad Schneiker wrote:

# IMHO, all future Ruby distributions (tgz, InstallShield) ought to be 
# "XML-ready" out of the box.
# 
# I think XML is going to be the "sort-of next big thing"--i.e. not *that* 

# big, but big *enough* to matter. (Where's my marketing hat. Ahh, here it 

# is. "Why dork around with Perl, Python, or Tcl when Ruby supports XML 
out 
# of the box?")
# 
# Hmm. Can this be an RCR?

IIRC, I made similar suggestions long ago, in part to facilitate the 
development and deployment of Ruby/GTK+ applications with tools like glade 
and such. (The announced plans of Sun and HP to make Gnome their standard 
desktop further strengthens the case for out of the box Ruby/XML support 
in this context.)

Well, it looks like I'm forced to support Dave's request.

As for the 200k increase: yes it's significant over a 56k modem, but 
that's a small price to pay to conquer the corporate world. The Ruby 
distro will still be small compared to Perl, which is still small compared 
to lots of Java-related stuff. The Perl of 5-7 years ago took forever to 
download because it was huge for its day, but so was the payoff in terms 
of the growth of CPAN, books, and jobs. Seize the day! --> seize XML! --> 
seize the world for Ruby! :-)

Conrad Schneiker
(This note is unofficial and subject to improvement without notice.)