Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained

#1

Post by Dylanlacey » Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 1:04 AM UTC

Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained
github.com

Re: Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained

#2

Post by kawsper » Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 2:14 AM UTC

It could be nice if Rubygems could show which gems that depends on a specific gem. I have a feeling that quite a lot depends on FFI.

I know that we depend on FFI, because we use selenium-webdriver, which depends on childprocess, which depends on FFI.

Re: Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained

#3

Post by mwill » Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 2:23 AM UTC

kawsper wrote: post #2

It could be nice if Rubygems could show which gems that depends on a specific gem. I have a feeling that quite a lot depends on FFI. I know that we depend on FFI, because we use selenium-webdriver, which depends on childprocess, which depends on FFI.

Is this a big problem for someone in your situation?

Can you not rely on childprocess (or selenium webdriver) to handle their own dependancies appropriately?

Re: Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained

#4

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 2:25 AM UTC

kawsper wrote: post #2

It could be nice if Rubygems could show which gems that depends on a specific gem. I have a feeling that quite a lot depends on FFI. I know that we depend on FFI, because we use selenium-webdriver, which depends on childprocess, which depends on FFI.

[deleted]

Re: Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained

#5

Post by sqs » Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 2:28 AM UTC

kawsper wrote: post #2

It could be nice if Rubygems could show which gems that depends on a specific gem. I have a feeling that quite a lot depends on FFI. I know that we depend on FFI, because we use selenium-webdriver, which depends on childprocess, which depends on FFI.

I'm helping build Sourcegraph, which lists the gems that depend on FFI here:

https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/ffi/ffi/network/repos/in

and can show where some of its main methods are used: https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/ffi/ffi/symbols/ruby/gem/...

and also for some other gems:

https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/nex3/sass/network/repos/i...

https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/lsegal/yard/network/repos...

https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/rails/rails/network/repos...

It would be great if someone added this functionality to rubygems.org (npmjs.org has it: https://npmjs.org/browse/depended/request).

The Ruby support is very alpha right now. It works for some (but not all) popular gems, and it doesn't show transitive dependencies yet. Also, the list of dependents isn't comprehensive, but it should be a good starting point. If there are any specific gems you'd like to see dependents for, or any issues you see, let me know.

Re: Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained

#6

Post by lstamour » Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 2:30 AM UTC

mwill wrote: post #3

kawsper wrote: post #2

It could be nice if Rubygems could show which gems that depends on a specific gem. I have a feeling that quite a lot depends on FFI. I know that we depend on FFI, because we use selenium-webdriver, which depends on childprocess, which depends on FFI.

Is this a big problem for someone in your situation? Can you not rely on childprocess (or selenium webdriver) to handle their own dependancies appropriately?

Well sure, from the same perspective, the way this usually works is someone will take over the project -- whoever "needs it the most when they discover an issue" -- and so it's not necessarily anyone's problem. That is, after all, the somewhat selfish nature of Open Source.

But I'd say this is a problem if one wants to ensure compatibility in Rubyland with other languages and processes on different environments, or that they're using the latest and most correct code for their situation.

This gets hairier if the gem forks on github, and you've multiple fixes in multiple branches ... Rubygems aren't really set up to deal with this. Bundler helps, though.

Re: Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained

#7

Post by lstamour » Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 2:33 AM UTC

sqs wrote: post #5

kawsper wrote: post #2

It could be nice if Rubygems could show which gems that depends on a specific gem. I have a feeling that quite a lot depends on FFI. I know that we depend on FFI, because we use selenium-webdriver, which depends on childprocess, which depends on FFI.

I'm helping build Sourcegraph, which lists the gems that depend on FFI here: https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/ffi/ffi/network/repos/in and can show where some of its main methods are used: https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/ffi/ffi/symbols/ruby/gem/... and also for some other gems: https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/nex3/sass/network/repos/i... https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/lsegal/yard/network/repos... https:/…

At a glance, there are perhaps 1400 gems that require or refer to ffi: https://www.google.ca/search?q=ffi+inurl:gemspec

But that's the type of site I was trying to find before I resorted to Google. I'd second that recommendation to add the functionality to rubygems.org ... Maybe we need a pull-request? :)

Re: Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained

#8

Post by w0rd-driven » Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 2:37 AM UTC

This also seems to be an example of how not to no longer provide support. Close all the issues? Let no one take over? I guess a fork works but I've also seen projects clearly taken over as-is with seemingly "official blessing." I prefer the latter approach or at the very least, keep the thing untouched until someone steps up. I could be late to the party and someone finally got around to saying "tough shit, we're done here" after years of nothing. This just feels cold to me. I don't need a sugar coated reason if you're honest. You can easily say "all I get are windows support issues. Fuck windows!!!" and it'd be a thousand times better than what's there.

Re: Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained

#9

Post by kawsper » Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 2:40 AM UTC

mwill wrote: post #3

kawsper wrote: post #2

It could be nice if Rubygems could show which gems that depends on a specific gem. I have a feeling that quite a lot depends on FFI. I know that we depend on FFI, because we use selenium-webdriver, which depends on childprocess, which depends on FFI.

Is this a big problem for someone in your situation? Can you not rely on childprocess (or selenium webdriver) to handle their own dependancies appropriately?

No, not really a problem for me, I would expect childprocess to change their dependencies if needed.

I guess the reason that I am a bit uncomfortable, is because FFI in particular feels very basic and fundamental.

Re: Ruby-FFI is no longer maintained

#10

Post by sqs » Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 3:10 AM UTC

lstamour wrote: post #7

sqs wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm helping build Sourcegraph, which lists the gems that depend on FFI here: https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/ffi/ffi/network/repos/in and can show where some of its main methods are used: https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/ffi/ffi/symbols/ruby/gem/... and also for some other gems: https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/nex3/sass/network/repos/i... https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/lsegal/yard/network/repos... https:/…

At a glance, there are perhaps 1400 gems that require or refer to ffi: https://www.google.ca/search?q=ffi+inurl:gemspec But that's the type of site I was trying to find before I resorted to Google. I'd second that recommendation to add the functionality to rubygems.org ... Maybe we need a pull-request? :)

I will probably eventually submit a PR for this feature at https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems.org. If anyone else wants to get it started, I'd certainly help.