Ruby based linux

[Tim Apple]

Hello,

I am starting a hobby project which is a Linux distro focused on Ruby.
The plan is for it to be a Ubuntu spin, with all the ruby libraries
installed by default.

I would like to also implement as much ruby based software as possible,
including shoes apps. What I need know is what you all need or would
like to see in a distro as Ruby developers. If you could take some time
to answer the following questions.

1. editor you use most with ruby?

2. packages you require as a developer that may not involve ruby?

3. I want to use allot of shoes stuff, or at least have it available.
Since shoes is gtk based I was going to go with Gnome or Xfce desktop
enviroment..opinions?


Mind you this is not somthing that will be released tomorrow...I am in
planning stages now...I will hope to have a release out around Karmic's
release. Other things I need..

Name ideas?

Artwork....wallpaper, icons, logo(once I have a name

webspace...once I have a name I will just start a wordpress blog..but
once in production I would like to have the site done in Rails just to
be as Ruby as possible.

Well thats enough for now...thanks for your time everybody.

Tim Apple

 

[Alex]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

Quite frankly, if you're attempting to target this at Ruby developers, I
think most of us (I know at least me) would rather put together our own
setup. I would rather pick and choose everything I want in the first place,
instead of my development environment being overflowing
with extraneous software.
If you're just making this as "something to do", then I completely
understand, but don't expect developers to want to use something that's not
customized how we like it.

As far as editors go, Emacs and VIM are the standards, and as long as you've
got rubygems and ruby installed, the user can handle pretty much everything
else.


Alex

 

[Tim Apple]

Quite frankly, if you're attempting to target this at Ruby developers, I
think most of us (I know at least me) would rather put together our own
setup. I would rather pick and choose everything I want in the first
place,
instead of my development environment being overflowing
with extraneous software.
If you're just making this as "something to do", then I completely
understand, but don't expect developers to want to use something that's
not
customized how we like it.

As far as editors go, Emacs and VIM are the standards, and as long as
you've
got rubygems and ruby installed, the user can handle pretty much
everything
else.


Alex

I am looking more at creating a Ruby environment...Just as Ruby as I can
make everything..If I can replace any stock Ubuntu app with something
written in Ruby(If functional..and opensource).. Again, this is a hobby
project, for fun. I want to see how far we can all take ruby.....heck,
maybe someday it will be a complete ruby desktop...who knows..should be
fun though.

Tim

 

[richard.j.dale]

I am looking more at creating a Ruby environment...Just as Ruby as I can
make everything..If I can replace any stock Ubuntu app with something
written in Ruby(If functional..and opensource).. Again, this is a hobby
project, for fun. I want to see how far we can all take ruby.....heck,
maybe someday it will be a complete ruby desktop...who knows..should be
fun though.

If you want to write a complete desktop in Ruby, you can write KDE 4
plasmoids in Ruby to implement a custom desktop - the whole of the
KDE4 desktop UI is made up of plamsa applets. You can't do everything
that you can do in C++ via the stock Plasma scripting api, but you can
do quite a lot.

KDE4 has complete bindings for the Qt/KDE apis (QtRuby and Korundum),
but we haven't got a finished KDevelop4 Ruby environment yet. In the
meantime I find Kate is a nice editor to use with Ruby.

-- Richard

 

[Louis-Philippe]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

Ruby developers wanting their own custom development environment can just
roll their own, that's true!
but still, in a convention over configuration way of thinking, a distro
could have sensible base settings and features, allowing you to work from it
out of the box.

I would suggest aiming at the actual OSX and Windows based devs.... one way
to do this would be to bundle it with the recently turned open source
e-editor (Textmate Clone for XP).

Quite frankly, if you're attempting to target this at Ruby developers, I
think most of us (I know at least me) would rather put together our own
setup. I would rather pick and choose everything I want in the first place,
instead of my development environment being overflowing
with extraneous software.
If you're just making this as "something to do", then I completely
understand, but don't expect developers to want to use something that's not
customized how we like it.

As far as editors go, Emacs and VIM are the standards, and as long as
you've
got rubygems and ruby installed, the user can handle pretty much everything
else.


Alex

 

[Martin DeMello]

I don't see why developing with GTK in mind necessitates either GNOME or
its little brother. =A0Some of use actively dislike GNOME.

Your apps integrate well into the standard desktop if they share its
toolkit. That said, I use fluxbox and run a lot of gtk apps, so it
doesn't really matter

Also . . . while Shoes and GTK depend on some common stuff, I'm not sure
I'd call Shoes "GTK-based". =A0Is Shoes more significantly tied to GTK th= an
I thought?

It uses gtk for its underlying toolkit under linux

$ ls /opt/shoes/shoes/native
cocoa.h cocoa.m gtk.c gtk.o windows.c

martin

 

[Marc Heiler]

Who cares if shoes is GTK based or not - it is a nice ruby app and
should be included in a ruby-centric linux distribution in mind.

First things first though, answers:

1. editor you use most with ruby?

bluefish, geany, and redcar

Since redcar is written in ruby and vala, and the author is on freenode
IRC and friendly, I think in the long run such a distribution should
focus
on redcar. I used to use vim a lot but after about 2 years I grew tired
of
learning more and more... I want a simple editor, not a mnemo contest.

The other two editors dont offer all features I would like to have,
but they did the job and I didnt care that much about the editor (brain
and documentation is more important anyway)

2. packages you require as a developer that may not involve ruby?

Just fill stuff up. I am fine with most WMs and Desktop Environments.

Personally I think you should focus on KDE or GTK. But dont exclude the
other.

What I mean is, focus on the DE which has the nicer overall support and
people who use that. But also try to make room for the other - for
example,
I use KDE a lot, and I love KDE4, plasmoids and the idea behind.

But I use ruby-gtk because the documentation was a lot better. I simply
found it easier to enter the ruby-gtk world. (But as written, I think
in the long run, the KDE approach is better. It also depends on how many
people
use ruby-specific toolkits, and shoes is always nice to keep around)

3. I want to use allot of shoes stuff, or at least have it available.
Since shoes is gtk based I was going to go with Gnome or Xfce desktop
enviroment..opinions?

XFCE is nice but it isnt ruby specific anywhere.
There are no fancy bindings.

Either KDE or Gnome. This is your decision ultimately. I would go with
both, actually. And in case one needs more space, kill all man pages and
other boring static documentation.

Name ideas?

I have no name suggestion, but since it is based on Ubuntu - and by the
way,
I personally refuse to use debian based systems for their package
splittup madness - it should somewhat refer to Ubuntu. How about
RUbuntu.
Or RubyTu. Or Rubified Ubuntu. Or ... red lightning. Or ... red carpet.
(omg...)
Or ... matz hamsters (what is the japanese word for a hamster...
ruby-hamster)

Artwork....wallpaper, icons, logo(once I have a name

Seriously, I think the more important part is the foundation. If the
foundation is weak, the whole thing will collapse. Anyone recalls the
story of RubyX / Heretix? Well, I do ... it was a sad one.

once in production I would like to have the site done in Rails just to
be as Ruby as possible.

Would be nice. I dont use rails, but it would be ruby-specific, so I am
fine.

BTW you rails people, please.... can you focus on ONE blog engine that
can compete with wordpress? Never mind trac (python) or phpbb (php).

People who USE RUBY a lot, do USE WORDPRESS because it offers features
which
they appreciate!
</sorry_for_off_topic_rant>

Anyway, I dont have any strong feeling about this, except for XFCE - I
like XFCE, but I think it would be misplaced. (Unless one would go with
ruby-gtk, but even then I think it is better to focus on GNOME +
ruby-gtk, rather than XFCE. If size is an issue, fluxbox is even smaller
and nice enough for sure )

 

[rick_2047]

If you want to go as close to ruby as possible try stripping out the
normal shells and fit in rush <http://rush.heroku.com/> that would
make it a class in itself.

Who cares if shoes is GTK based or not - it is a nice ruby app and
should be included in a ruby-centric linux distribution in mind.

I think the reason for the discussion was related to the suggestion that,
because GTK is involved, maybe a Ruby-centric Linux distro should use
GNOME as its default desktop environment.

Personally, I'd like to see a window manager written in Ruby, if there's
going to be a Ruby-centric Linux distro.

Either KDE or Gnome. This is your decision ultimately. I would go with
both, actually. And in case one needs more space, kill all man pages an= d
other boring static documentation.

Why do you say that either KDE or GNOME is "your decision ultimately"?

BTW you rails people, please.... can you focus on ONE blog engine that
can compete with wordpress? Never mind trac (python) or phpbb (php).

Uh . . . what? =A0Since when is Trac a Python-based Weblog platform? =A0S= ince
when is phpBB a PHP-based Weblog platform? =A0One is a wiki and issue
tracking system, and the other is a forum, or bulletin board, site.
Neither of them is relevant to whether there's a direct competitor to
WordPress written in Ruby.

--
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL:http://owl.apotheon.org]
Quoth H. L. Mencken: "Democracy is the theory that the common people
know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

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