[Rubygems-developers] Weekend Summary

[Jim Weirich]

I've reached a stopping point and I want to give everyone a heads up on 
what has been done.

The .gemrc file is now working with the gem command as documented on the 
wiki site.  This one was a headache to implement because it touched so 
many different areas.  It also had startup issues because the config 
file had to be read before the commands were created (the commands 
depend upon some state possibly affected by the config file).  But the 
command line is processed by a command after it is created.  But the 
config file is specified on the command line.

I ended up handling the --config-file and --backtrace options separately 
from all the other options.  They are handled before the command manager 
is created.  Oh yeah, the command handler is now created by the 
GemRunner (which also handles the early command line parameter options).

Also, commands are now able to report on whether or not they support a 
given option.  Ask a command:   cmd.handles?(["--local"]) and it will 
report true or false.  I needed this to be able to dump the .gemrc 
options that weren't appropriate for a given command. (Did I mention the 
.gemrc stuff was a headache).

A word about the the --backtrace option.  Normally, the gem command will 
print out an error message and stop when an exception percolates all the 
way up to the top of the program.  This is fine for normal use, but we 
need to see a backtrace when debugging.  The backtrace option enables 
that backtrace for us.  So, if a command fails, just run it again with 
--backtrace.

Documentation has been extensively updated to the new command format. 
With the exception of the details on the Gem specification, it should be 
ready.  I took a bold step and wrote up a versioning policy.  Review 
that and the other new pages and provide some feedback.  Thanks.

Outstanding Issues:
* Does require_gem honor the .gemrc file settings?  I bet it doesn't. 
(See!  It is a headache).

* The GemSpecInDetail page is the only big piece of documentation still 
missing (yes, I know I haven't documented --backtrace yet).

If we double check the require_gem/.gemrc issue, I see no barriers to a 
new release.

-- 
-- Jim Weirich    jim at weirichhouse.org     http://onestepback.org
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"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct,
not tried it." -- Donald Knuth (in a memo to Peter van Emde Boas)