= Announce: RubyGems Release 0.8.5

Hello one and all.  It is time for another RubyGems update.  But first
the numbers.

Counting both the tarfile/zipfile download and the rubygem-update gem,
we have exceed 20,000 downloads of the RubyGems software, and this
doesn't count the number of RubyGems packages were downloaded as part of
the Windows one-click installer.  New gems are being published all the
time.  It was just a week or so ago when we saw the 200th gem released,
and already we have more 213 unique gems available for download.

We have just released RubyGems 0.8.5.  This latest version of RubyGems
has some new functionality, fixes a few bugs and makes some things look
prettier.  There are more changes in the works, but we wanted to get the
new stuff out as fast as possible.

== Faster Source Cache

Do you know how you used to dread getting the following message while
installing gems?

  Updating Gem source index for: http://gems.rubyforge.org

It could take up to 30 seconds (on my machine, even worse on others) for
that crazy source index to update.

This latest release of RubyGems speeds that wait time up considerably.
The following table gives the following times for installing RedCloth
with a required source index update on three system we had available to
us.  No RDoc generation was included in the following times.

  RubyGems    Linux         Mac OSX      Windows
  0.8.4       33 secs       73 secs      58 secs
  0.8.5        8 secs       14 secs      21 secs

The new caching code is at least 3x faster than previous versions.  Woo
Hoo!

== What is RubyGems?

RubyGems is a package management system for Ruby applications and
libraries.  RubyGems one command download makes installing Ruby software
fun and enjoyable again. (Ok, not really.)

Many gems are available for download from the RubyForge site.  Browse
the list of gems with a "gem list --remote" command and download what
you need with a simple "gem install <name-of-gem>".  RubyGems takes care
of the details of installing, not only the gem you requested, but also
any gems needed by the software you selected.

So now you are asking ...

== How can I get all this great stuff?

Well, here's how ...

To download and install:

1. DOWNLOAD FROM: http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126
2. UNPACK INTO A DIRECTORY AND CD THERE
3. INSTALL WITH:  ruby setup.rb all  (you may need admin/root privilege)

... or, if you have an existing RubyGem installation ....

  $ gem install rubygems-update  (again, might need to be admin/root)
  $ update_rubygems              (... here too)

== So What's Changed in this Release?

* Fixed a bug where, during installation, partial matches on gem names
  overshadowed an exact match on the gem name.  Exact matches are now
  required.

* Applied Austin Ziegler/Kasper Schiess's patch to fix unit test running
  bug.

* Applied Lyle Johnson's patch to fix a problem with multiple require
  paths.

* "gem update" now accepts a list of gems and only updates the gems
  listed on the command line.  If no list is given then all gems are
  updated (which is the bahvior of the previousversion.

* gem_server has been updated with a very nice looking template.  Thanks
  to Martin Ankerl.

* RubyGems now actively requires Ruby version 1.8.0 or better.  Folks
  trying to run RubyGems on OSX with the default Ruby installation will
  now get a meaning error message (rather than mysteriously not
  working).

* Local source index caching is now /much/ faster.  It now using Marshal
  rather than Yaml.

* The update command now supports a --system option to update the
  RubyGems software its self.  After installing 0.8.5, updating RubyGems
  will be a one step process.

* Dropped that really irritating warning about generating RDocs for
  packages that didn't specify it had an RDoc.  No one really cared
  about the message and it was confusing to new users.

* Errors encountered while using require now corrctly reported.

* Misc. bug fixes.  See the ChangeLog file for details.

== Thanks

I wish to give a special thanks to Lyle Johnson, Austing Ziegler, and
Ksaper Schiess for the patches they provided.  And a big thanks to
Martin Ankerl for the HTML template upgrade to the gem_server package.
It looks really great.

Keep those gems coming!

-- Jim & Chad (for the RubyGems team)
