This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by Chad Fowler. Original Post: Celebrating 5000 downloads of RubyGems Feed Title: ChadFowler.com Feed URL: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Chadfowlercom Feed Description: Best practices, worst practices, and some generally obvious stuff about programming. Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by Chad Fowler Latest Posts From ChadFowler.com

The Stats

249 unique library releases

5000 plus downloads of RubyGems

20688 downloads of gem libraries

Learn about it

RubyGems chapter in Programming Ruby (slashdotted today)

Jim Weirich’s RubyGems presentation from RubyConf 2004 ((Listen in mp3!))

Help us celebrate!

Let’s make those numbers up there get bigger (especially the first one)!

1. Go get RubyGems 0.8.1 if you don’t already have it.
2. Pick a library that you either created or really like
3. Check to see if there is a gem already available for it (gem search -r libraryname)
4. If yes, goto 1.
5. Read the RubyGems chapter in Programming Ruby.
6. Create a gemspec (or a Rakefile) and build the gem.
7. If this is not your library, send the gemspec/rakefile to the author and ask them to add it to their build process.
8. If this is your library, add the gemspec/rakefile to your build process.
9. If you have a RubyForge project for this library, release the gem, and it will be automatically available via remote install (gem install mywonderfullibrary)
10. If you don’t have a RubyForge project, email me (chad at chadfowler.com) and I’ll make sure the gem gets added for you.

If you need help, email me or find me on irc (#ruby-lang,#rubyonrails on irc.freenode.net) or on AIM (cefogc). I may be busy when you initially contact me, but trust that I’ll be happy to hear from you.

Imagine when the number 111 from above becomes 1111 and virtually any Ruby library or application you could think of is installable (with all of its dependencies) with a single command. How fast can we make that happen? How big a chunk can one person contribute to that goal?