Eivind Eklund wrote:

>On 10/2/05, Devin Mullins <twifkak / comcast.net> wrote:
>  
>
>>`gem uninstall thegems`
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>>
>What if other stuff rely on those gems?  Like user-written code?
>  
>
OK, point. What does apt-get (or ports) do natively to fix this?

>>I guess my concern with repackaging is that it introduces duplication.
>>    
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>In what way are you thinking of?
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For a given libraries, you would have multiple packages (RubyGems, 
ports, apt-get, portage, rpm, fink, darwinports...) all that contain the 
same meaning in them -- what to install and how to install it. Much of 
the same logic comprises each of those packages. I would rather efforts 
be taken to put as much of the logic in a single package system, and let 
the other ones be "adapters" to that one.

Further, this causes one of two problems for the library author:
1. He's got to publish in 10 different package formats
2. His library has got to be famous enough that the major packaging 
systems have put maintainers in charge of his library, and he's got to 
not mind the delay.

>I think not repackaging introduce duplication, in the form of
>duplicated package managers handling the same machine, and thus
>duplicated interfaces the user needs to know.
>  
>
Yeah, I see your point here. I would think that an "adapter" technique 
would solve the UI problem better than static repackaging would. As far 
as multiple package managers being duplication, well, that's true, but 
there are, like, twenty web frameworks for Python, and that's likely not 
going to change. Duplication of effort is a fact of life. :)

>really
>ideally, they'd be able to hook together nicely - unfortunately, I'm
>uncertain if that is doable in practice (for combined technical and
>social reasons.)
>  
>
That's too bad. Imagine if there existed a single piece of code that 
allowed apt-get to interact with .gem files and gems.rubyforge.com.  
That would allow apt-get users to control Ruby libs, and wouldn't 
require each lib to be repackaged for apt-get specifically.

(It would't obviate all those differences you've pointed out, of course.)

Devin