Looking for Hidden Gems

[James Gray]

I'm hunting for some gems that are under loved, off the beaten path,
poorly documented, or just lesser known yet still wickedly useful. I
think something like NArray or RBTree falls into this category.

I would love to receive other suggestions. Send me links to the
projects you don't see used all the time but you just couldn't live
without. Please send code with your suggestions or point me towards
some code on the Web if you can, so I can understand how to use the
project.

I'm collecting this information for a conference speech I'm planning,
by the way.

Thanks for the ideas.

James Edward Gray II

 

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

I'm hunting for some gems that are under loved, off the beaten path,
poorly documented, or just lesser known yet still wickedly useful. I
think something like NArray or RBTree falls into this category.

IIRC NArray has never been packaged as a gem! Talk about under-loved!

 

[James Gray]

IIRC NArray has never been packaged as a gem! Talk about under-
loved!

Just, to be clear, I'll take non-gems if they are worth the effort. I
just liked the name "Hidden Gems."

However, it does seem there is a gem in this case:

$ gem query -r --name-matches narray

*** REMOTE GEMS ***

Bulk updating Gem source index for: http://gems.rubyforge.org/
narray (0.5.9.4)

James Edward Gray II

 

[ara.t.howard]

I'm hunting for some gems that are under loved, off the beaten path,
poorly documented, or just lesser known yet still wickedly useful.
I think something like NArray or RBTree falls into this category.

I would love to receive other suggestions. Send me links to the
projects you don't see used all the time but you just couldn't live
without. Please send code with your suggestions or point me towards
some code on the Web if you can, so I can understand how to use the
project.

I'm collecting this information for a conference speech I'm
planning, by the way.

Thanks for the ideas.

James Edward Gray II

require 'gsl'

a @ http://codeforpeople.com/

 

[ara.t.howard]

IIRC NArray has never been packaged as a gem! Talk about under-
loved!

cfp:~ > gem list|grep narray
narray (0.5.9.4)



a @ http://codeforpeople.com/

 

[Eric Hodel]

I'm hunting for some gems that are under loved, off the beaten path,
poorly documented, or just lesser known yet still wickedly useful.
I think something like NArray or RBTree falls into this category.

I would love to receive other suggestions. Send me links to the
projects you don't see used all the time but you just couldn't live
without. Please send code with your suggestions or point me towards
some code on the Web if you can, so I can understand how to use the
project.

I'm collecting this information for a conference speech I'm
planning, by the way.

We just crossed 3,000 gems last week, so here's the oldest ~ 3%:

require 'rubygems'
require 'rubygems/source_info_cache'

si = Gem::SourceInfoCache.cache_data[Gem.sources.first].source_index

puts si.map { |n,spec| spec }.sort_by { |spec|
spec.date }.first(100).map { |spec| spec.full_name }

progressbar-0.0.3
cgikit-1.1.0
statistics-2001.2.28
Ook-1.0.2
RubyJDWP-0.0.1
log4r-1.0.5
dbdbd-0.2.2
rdf-0.3
keyedlist-0.4.0
captcha-0.1.2
rublog-0.8.0
fingerserver-0.4.0
ikko-0.1
regexp-engine-0.9
stream-0.5
VRTools-0.0.1
rvsh-0.4.5
libgnucap-ruby-0.1
iterator-0.8
csbattery-0.2.2
csinterface-0.6.2
sds-0.3
ObjectGraph-1.0.1
ruby-doom-0.8
cstemplate-0.5.1
kreed-0.0.2
neelix-0.0.3
ladspar-0.1
cardinal-0.1.0
mw-template-0.9.1
MultipartAlternativeLite-0.0.1
ncurses-0.9.1
ruby-cache-0.3.0
XMMS-Ruby-0.1.2
Joystick-Ruby-0.1.0
rdf-redland-0.5.1.3
aversa-0.3
BlueCloth-1.0.0
sqlite-2.0.1
copland-lib-0.1.0
copland-remote-0.1.0
copland-webrick-0.1.0
an-app-0.0.3
packrat-0.1.0
libxosd2-ruby-0.4
libxosd-ruby-0.4
rlirc-0.3.1
swin-2004.03.14-x86-mswin32
vruby-2004.08.07
wxrubylayouts-0.0.3
termios-0.9.4
Syndic8-Ruby-0.2.0
Technorati-Ruby-0.1.0
ctapi-0.2.2
jobserver-0.1.4
Rubilicious-0.1.2
yip-0.8.2
complearn-0.6.2
Rodo-1.1
dnssd-0.6.0
copland-1.0.0
dev-utils-1.0.1
SimpleSearch-0.5.0
diff-lcs-1.1.2
xhtmldiff-1.0.0
formvalidator-0.1.3
jpeg2pdf-0.12
algorithm-diff-0.1
test-unit-mock-0.30
io-reactor-0.05
ruvi-0.4.12
crosscase-0.0.1
posixlock-0.0.1
latex-0.1.3
text-highlight-1.0.2
IO-Reactor-0.0.6
rubypants-0.2.0
Ruby-MemCache-0.0.1
sstruct-1.0.1
needle-extras-1.0.0
realrand-1.0.2
hprevalence-0.2.0
genx4r-0.05
libbz2-0.4
Asami-0.04
extensions-0.6.0
text-hyphen-1.0.0
PrettyException-0.9.5
tex-hyphen-0.5.0
ruwiki-0.9.3
net-tftp-0.1.0
xmlresume2x-0.2.1
creditcard-1.0
Bloglines4R-0.1.0
x10-cm17a-1.0.1
x10-cm17a-1.0.1-x86-mswin32
text-reform-0.2.0
dbus-0.1.10
sqlite-ruby-2.2.3
sqlite-ruby-2.2.3-x86-mswin32

The oldest in this list, progressbar-0.0.3 has a date of:

$ gem spec -r progressbar | grep date
date: 2004-03-13 05:56:48.508436 -08:00

The newest in this list:

$ gem spec -r sqlite-ruby | grep date
date: 2005-01-29 21:00:00 -08:00

 

[Joel VanderWerf]

However, it does seem there is a gem in this case:

$ gem query -r --name-matches narray

Was surprised by this and by the existence of an rbtree gem. Yay!

 

[Peña, Botp]

From: Eric Hodel [mailto:[email protected]]=20
# $ gem spec -r progressbar | grep date
# date: 2004-03-13 05:56:48.508436 -08:00

yikes, didn't know it was that old. I've been using it all the time
thanks for the gems, eric.
kind regards -botp

 

[James Gray]

require 'gsl'

I bet that's great library, but, not being a scientist, I'm probably =20
the wrong guy to talk it up. Thanks for the suggestion though Ara.

I ma bug you when I start trying to make good NArray examples for =20
similar reasons=85

James Edward Gray II

 

[James Gray]

We just crossed 3,000 gems last week, so here's the oldest ~ 3%:

Thank you Eric. I will try to comb through this list and see if
anything catches my eye.

If anyone has favorites in the selection though, please point them out
for me.

James Edward Gray II

 

[ara.t.howard]

I bet that's great library, but, not being a scientist, I'm probably =20=

the wrong guy to talk it up. Thanks for the suggestion though Ara.

A) it's the single biggest ruby project after rails. think about that!

B) take 50% of the list where people say 'ruby is too slow at XXXX' or =20=

why can't i do 'XXX' - the gsl is by far the largest container of =20
algorithms on rubyforge, but orders of magnitude, it's not just =20
science: scan this list

http://rb-gsl.rubyforge.org/ref.html

and you'll see things like 'complex numbers', 'vectors', 'matrices' =20
'permutations', 'FFT', 'random number generation', 'statistics', and =20
'NArray compatibilities'

scan the list of ruby quizes and you'll see where i'm headed ;-)

I ma bug you when I start trying to make good NArray examples for =20
similar reasons=85

sure. the fact that these two libs work together is immensely powerful.

check this out

http://codeforpeople.com/katrina/fast/

and here is the code

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/155483

using narray in combination of mmap.

cheers.

a @ http://codeforpeople.com/

 

[Cameron McBride]

wrong guy to talk it up. Thanks for the suggestion though Ara.

I just want to agree with Ara. A substantial benefit of GSL is that
for non-scientists, the collection of algorithms does a lot of the
dirty work that one doesn't have to code up but that often is
necessary.

Having a GSL gem would be handy, and take it a step toward more usable
for people that want it (or libraries that might want to use it).

In addition, thoughts on nicely handling how to "downgrade" based on
the C version of GSL installed would be a great addition.

Cameron

 

[James Gray]

Sorry for the delayed response, I've been on vacation.

A) it's the single biggest ruby project after rails. think about
that!

I didn't know that. That is interesting.

B) take 50% of the list where people say 'ruby is too slow at XXXX'
or why can't i do 'XXX' - the gsl is by far the largest container of
algorithms on rubyforge, but orders of magnitude, it's not just
science: scan this list

http://rb-gsl.rubyforge.org/ref.html

and you'll see things like 'complex numbers', 'vectors', 'matrices'
'permutations', 'FFT', 'random number generation', 'statistics', and
'NArray compatibilities'

scan the list of ruby quizes and you'll see where i'm headed ;-)

Yeah, these are all good points. I'll give it some deeper
consideration. Thanks!

James Edward Gray II