[BioRuby] Ruby installation

[Pjotr Prins]

On Thu, May 01, 2014 at 08:21:03AM +0100, Iain Barnett wrote:
> VMs are easy, just install the software, then run the the file.

So how do you get your data files onto the VM? Yes, that requires more
instructions. Next you need to explain how a container works inside a
computer. Then they use 2 editors on 2 accounts to work with data?
Come on guys, it is not that straightforward. I also use VMs all the
time (I am writing this E-mail on one) and I contributed quite a bit
to CloudBioLinux. 

You are still mixing in expert advice. What works for you is not
always easy for others to grasp. Expert advice is for experts.

I simply care about others using my software. What they experience is
that it is too HARD to use my software. The HARD part is deployment.
Which sucks because I write great software ;). I am not targeting Ruby
programmers here, my first audience is people who want to run a Ruby
tool on the command line without everythink exploding in their face.

But even a newbie should be able to simply install a tool and program

  require 'bio'.

It is amazing how many fail around me. I can only guess to extrapolate
what that means on a mondial scale. Ruby is going to lose out. Better
have them learn some easier to deploy language if we remain in this
mind set - that is what I am thinking.

When you actually read

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6891214

Ruby is mentioned specifically. Yesterday, on Slashdot the same

  'Ruby makes sysadmins cry. I tried updating a legacy server yesterday that is running a ruby app. After two hours of trying to make it work, I gave up.'

in 

  http://ask.slashdot.org/story/14/04/30/1344224/c-and-the-stl-12-years-later-what-do-you-think-now?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

I am not making this up. These are both non-Ruby threads! We have a real and
acute problem if you start reading up on this shit and see people struggle.

rvm's and VM are actually the problem, not the solution. We are happy
in our own little boxes ignoring the outside world. Remember some
facts about evolution?

We need to come up with a sensible protocol that I can give to any
student for his laptop and any system adminstrator on a compute
cluster. 

Software is software. We can solve it. The only reason we are not
solving it is that *we* do not really care about other users. We are
ignoring them.

Pj.