This looks like a mistake: Rip: A Next Generation Ruby Packaging System. One of the things that Ruby does really well is library packaging, RubyGems may have some flaws but it basically works really well. Contrast this with the situation in Python where there are a number of different packaging systems (see, e.g. this discussion by Ian Bicking), and it’s just a mess—this stands out all the more as Python normally follows a ‘one way to do it’ approach. Hopefully this attempt to fork the Ruby packaging world will be dead on arrival.

Tip o’ the hat to Ryan Tomayko for pointing this out.