To back up a bit. I package Java why do I care about Python and Ruby? 1. Its annoying as a user to fiddle with targets, short of doing a wild card and having multiple versions. 2. Unlike most other languages. Java has support for other languages. Running PHP, Python, and Ruby on the JVM. This java package depends on Ruby https://github.com/Obsidian-StudiosInc/os-xtoo/tree/master/dev-java/jruby Which in working with latest version of Ruby 2.4.x there was an API change, which broke a Spring dependency https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/pull/1344 https://github.com/Obsidian-StudiosInc/os-xtoo/blob/master/dev-java/spring-context/files/jrubyexception.patch This java package depends on Python https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/tree/master/dev-java/jython While other languages package just themselves. Not sure I have ever seen a perl, php, python or ruby package that supports Java. As in running Java code on perl, php, python, or ruby. At best its optional Java support. Java is a different beast, and people run those languages in Java... And others, Groovy, Scala, Clojure, etc -- William L. Thomson Jr.