# Gem ideas **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [October 6, 2007, 12:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-ideas/116486 "2007-10-06T00:11:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![john\_old](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/9f8e36/32.png) [@john\_old](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_old)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 12:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-ideas/116486/1 "2007-10-06T00:11:31Z")
I have a few ideas I’d like to see the Gem tool. Please correct me if they don’t already exist! options, like the gem path variable, but to display, say 10 at a time with gem list (or an arbitrary number, or even a regex-ish thing…) Something similar to ri or other command line tools that allow for pagination. Nothing is more obnoxious than having to scroll back up a long list of gems. Next dumb idea of mine: Aliases. Aliasing a gem name or a group of gems. With the ability to essentially create your own grouping of gems. So, say I want to create ‘railsgems’ as a group alias for all the gems I use with Rails… something like this: gem alias -g ActiveRecord RMagick ActionPack so gem alias wold allow creation of an alias, to prevent the need to always type a long version number (yes I’m lazy) but also have a -g or --g flag for group aliasing, followed by argument list of gem names. With indexing, there could easily be automatic aliases for first character. so gem list a would not have to search the gems, just quickly list all of the a\* named gems gem list r would list all the r\* gems without searching every time. But one step further, let’s also make requiring gems, particularly groups of gems easier. require ‘rubygems’ require ‘my\_gem\_group’ Or even: require ‘rubygems:my\_gem\_group’ or something like that! Granted, gem aliases might make dependencies and deployment more fragile in a sense, but no more than other required libraries in software. So, there is one last idea to go with this group alias require approach… Auto generate (with optional on or off flag or gem env variable) RDOC that names the alias contents. I suppose internally gem aliases should essentially need to be either a simple alias\_name\_here.rb file generated that requires all the gems included in the alias. This step might make (re)distribution a little easier. Perhaps an additional Rake task included to add gems in the requires or alias requires when those gems are not already on a system. ---
**Author:** ![john\_old](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/9f8e36/32.png) [@john\_old](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_old)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-ideas/116486/2 "2007-10-06T01:43:56Z")
On Oct 5, 2007, at 15:10 , John J. wrote: > I have a few ideas I’d like to see the Gem tool. Please correct me > if they don’t already exist! > options, like the gem path variable, but to display, say 10 at a > time with gem list (or an arbitrary number, or even a regex-ish > thing…) > Something similar to ri or other command line tools that allow for > pagination. > Nothing is more obnoxious than having to scroll back up a long list > of gems. /usr/bin/more > Next dumb idea of mine: > Aliases. > Aliasing a gem name or a group of gems. > With the ability to essentially create your own grouping of gems. > So, say I want to create ‘railsgems’ as a group alias for all the > gems I use with Rails… > something like this: > gem alias -g ActiveRecord RMagick ActionPack Create a new gem with the gems you want as dependencies. > so gem alias wold allow creation of an alias, to prevent the need > to always type a long version number (yes I’m lazy) > but also have a -g or --g flag for group aliasing, followed by > argument list of gem names. If I’m typing version numbers, I’m doing something like uninstalling and I want to make sure I get it right. The inconvenience presented by the extra typing helps me focus. > With indexing, there could easily be automatic aliases for first > character. > so > gem list a > would not have to search the gems, just quickly list all of the a\* > named gems > gem list r would list all the r\* gems without searching every time. gem help list gem help search > But one step further, let’s also make requiring gems, particularly > groups of gems easier. > require ‘rubygems’ > require ‘my\_gem\_group’ > > Or even: > require ‘rubygems:my\_gem\_group’ > > or something like that! autorequire was removed on purpose. You’ll have to require the files you want by hand. > Granted, gem aliases might make dependencies and deployment more > fragile in a sense, but no more than other required libraries in > software. More fragile is never good. I’d rather have a RubyGems that is reliable, dependable and predictable. > Auto generate (with optional on or off flag or gem env variable) > RDOC that names the alias contents. > > I suppose internally gem aliases should essentially need to be > either a simple alias\_name\_here.rb file generated that requires all > the gems included in the alias. You can’t require a gem, you can only activate it. You can require files in a gem, but there is no automatic way to determine what files are appropriate (other than requiring all of them). If there is a common set of files, it is up to the author to provide a method of loading all of them. > This step might make (re)distribution a little easier. This sentence is nearly opposite of the “more fragile” one. How can it be both more fragile and easier to redistribute? Why do you need to redistribute? spec.add\_dependency takes care of that for you. You have to gather the dependencies and repackage them anyways if you’re moving to a different packaging system, so I can’t see how this would decrease the amount of work you have to do. > Perhaps an additional Rake task included to add gems in the > requires or alias requires when those gems are not already on a > system. If you have your own gem listing your dependencies, `gem install` takes care of it for you. ---
**Author:** ![john\_old](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/9f8e36/32.png) [@john\_old](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_old)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 2:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-ideas/116486/3 "2007-10-06T02:53:30Z")
On 10/5/07, Eric H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > of gems. > > /usr/bin/more more or less – Rick DeNatale My blog on Ruby [http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/](http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/) ---
**Author:** ![john\_old](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/9f8e36/32.png) [@john\_old](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_old)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 5:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-ideas/116486/4 "2007-10-06T05:42:32Z")
On Oct 5, 2007, at 17:52 , Rick DeNatale wrote: > On 10/5/07, Eric H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > /usr/bin/more > > more or less $ ll /usr/bin/more /usr/bin/less -rwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 118508 Mar 20 2005 /usr/bin/less\* -rwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 118508 Mar 20 2005 /usr/bin/more\* less is more (you can shoot me now) ---
**Author:** ![john\_old](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/9f8e36/32.png) [@john\_old](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_old)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 6:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-ideas/116486/5 "2007-10-06T06:04:43Z")
Quoth Eric H.: > less is more > > (you can shoot me now) > > – > Poor workers blame their tools. Good workers build better tools. The > best workers get their tools to do the work for them. – Syndicate Wars Or is it? $ ls -l /usr/bin/less /bin/more /usr/bin/more ls: cannot access /usr/bin/more: No such file or directory -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32176 2007-08-08 08:05 /bin/more\* -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 129984 2007-02-20 01:04 /usr/bin/less\* Regards,