Kenichi Komiya <kom / mail1.accsnet.ne.jp> writes:

> If we can design new package format rather than adopting
> existing one, we do not need to bother changing interpreter.
> Just put few line of decoder (written in Ruby) at the top of the
> package file, followed by ctrl-D and encoded binary data.  Ruby
> stop parsing at ctrl-D and let the decoder handle the rest of
> job.
> 
> What Dave was looking for in [ruby-talk:12840] should fit nicely
> in this scheme.  (Perhaps, this is his turn to claim his
> invention :-)

OK, I'll confess.

I have something called 'rar' which does just that. It bundles a group 
of files together, adds a Ruby wrapper, and overrides 'require' so
that it can find files in the bundle. It requires no support on the
destination system: the archive is self-contained. It also never
extracts files: it serves the .rb files internally.

I was going to have it use compressed files, but I still haven't
finished experimenting with options, so right now it simply bundles
files in straight ASCII.

The program is pretty trivial right now: just a proof of concept
really, and I'm running short of hours in the day. If anyone's
interested in playing with the ideas and perhaps developing this into
something worthwhile I'd be happy to post what I have.


Regards


Dave