List all desired subspecs on one line in Podfile

[mickeyreiss]

Similar to #150, I am also hitting a point where some sugar on top of subspecs would be useful.

In my case, I'd like to have a single Pod with ~5 optional subcomponents. Each user of the pod is likely to choose a different subset; it's nearly impossible to determine what the right set of defaults should be. By choosing a subset for people, we likely introduce bloat into typical integrators' apps.

In this type of setup, where subspecs are closer to build variants than separate components, I propose a syntax that allows the user to specify all relevant subspecs on one line in their Podfile:

pod "CuttingTools", :subspecs => ["Scissors", "Machette", "Penknife", "KnifeBlock"]

as an alternative to

pod "CuttingTools/Scissors"
pod "CuttingTools/Machette"
pod "CuttingTools/Penknife"
pod "CuttingTools/KnifeBlock"

You'll note in this example that KnifeBlock has a hierarchical relationship with the rest of the subspecs, in that it holds whichever knives happen to be available; at the same time, if KnifeBlock pulls in every tool (subspec) available as a dependency, many users will end up with extra code provided by the unused katana, butter-knife, etc. (i.e. undesired subspecs for that application).

Has something along these lines been considered in the past?

[segiddins]

We'd actually rather encourage people to not use subspecs :)

[mickeyreiss]

What would you suggest as an alternative for situations like this?

[segiddins]

Runtime customization?

-Samuel E. Giddins

On Feb 25, 2015, at 8:25 PM, Mickey Reiss notifications@github.com wrote:

What would you suggest as an alternative for situations like this?

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[kylef]

Since this is Ruby and it's a full language, a short term solution for this that you can currently use with CocoaPods:

%w(Scissors Machette).each{ |s| pod "CuttingTools/#{s}" }

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Perhaps the proposed syntax, or a similar syntax makes sense to simplify subspec use. @orta any input?

[segiddins]

@orta do we want to add this to the DSL?

[orta]

Oh wow, I have never even thought of this. It'd be lovely IMO.