Justin Duewel-Zahniser

"One of the main issues with gems (and with all gems-like things that I have experienced--I realize you're using this as an archetype) is the dependency on the version of what you include. So, you have to re-write to adapt to the gem over time or freeze it, which has a whole other host of problems. A tool which would be able to report out (visually or not, I don't care) all segments of your code which reference the capabilities from an included gem would help with this. If frozen, you'd know what you need to touch if you decide to un-freeze. If un-frozen and upgrading, you'd know where you need to pro-actively improve things. Unit tests help here, but they just let you know where you need to make a change downstream and it would be nice to be aware up front, I think. Something gem-like with a level of intelligence about it's applicability to your code and with more sophisticated tools for version management and impact assessment might be the next step. Though probably far from the end..." - Justin Duewel-Zahniser