[Fxruby-users] [Q] Alternatives to the source RubyGem format?

[<ly...@kn...>]

All,

In a separate post, Yuri asked: "Do you plan to provide gems as the only
source package format? I think rubygems is a terrific thing, but I also
suppose there must be a choice."

Despite the fact that it still has some rough edges, I really like the idea
of RubyGems and want to do what I can to encourage its adoption in the Ruby
community. But as I've previously stated, the choice to use RubyGems as the
distribution format for FXRuby 1.2 is a sort of experiment while we're still
in the "alpha" release stage.

So my question is, based on your experiences so far, what do you see as the
disadvantages of sticking with "source" RubyGems as the distribution method,
as opposed to the previously available source tarballs? I'm absolutely fine
with offering alternative distributions if we have a compelling reason to do
so. On the other hand, I want to avoid confusion in terms of multiple sets
of instructions about the different ways to build and install the code,
depending on which distribution you've downloaded.

Let me repeat: this is *not* a done deal. I sincerely want to know what you
guys are thinking about this.

Thanks in advance for your comments,

Lyle