From: "Curt Hibbs" <curt / hibbs.com>
>
> What ever happened to RubyGems?
>
> I would like to see some kind of standard deployment format similar to
> Java's jar files. Having a standard format would go a long way toward
> helping Ruby programs become easier to deploy, distribute, and install.

Funny you mention *jar* - it's just *zip* in disguise, but with *tar* CLI.  On
my incredibly crippled AIX box at work, we use *jar* is we want to *unzip*
(non-Java-related) zip files!!!


[From _why:]
> > Anyways, I'm way off-topic now, but still sort of on.. :)  My vote is
> > [1] tar.gz, [2] Minero Aoki's install.rb/setup.rb, [3] integration of
> > install.rb and RAAInstall to provide installation of dependancies.
> >
> > _why

IMO dependency resolution is not an important matter.  If we have an easy way
to download and install third-party packages, then "manually" getting the right
packages (i.e. RingTFM) would not be a hassle.

Once that's achieved, some bright people can implement:
 - mass downloading to keep everything current (Cygwin's installer is a
   great model for this
 - dependency resolution

Summary: package format and installation procedure are the most important
issues.

Gavin