Running ruby programs on a windows xp computer

I have a couple of questions which is fairly simple , as I am very new
to ruby programming, There are a lot of editors that one can use to
write a ruby program, and ruby 1.8.2 comes with an editor built in
called SciTE. I am using SciTE and at the moment ruby 1.8.2 as that
seemed the stable version of rub available.
Question 1
If you use SciTE to write a ruby program and save it in a directory
with a .rb exstension, is it true that it can be ran in the cmd
(command prompt) fine, but if you try to run the ruby program in the
SciTE editor by opening the output windoow ,and choosing the go option
(F5) that some ruby programs will not run in this way, especially if
there ar gets statements in them where the program is trying to get
characters from the key board? Basically a ruby program ran in SciTe
with a gets statement will try to open up a command prompt when you run
it and then craches! Yes?!

Question 2
If I want to upgrade from ruby version 1.8.2 to to 1.8.4, is there a
best possible way to do this, or is it best to use the uninstaller that
comes with ruby and unistall the current version and then to use the
ruby one click installer at http://rubyinstaller.rubyforge.org to
install ruby 1.8.4, and finally is there a finished stable 1.8.4
version available?

if any one can help, I would be very graitfull many thanks julian.

On 4/3/06, julian [email protected] wrote:

Question 2
If I want to upgrade from ruby version 1.8.2 to to 1.8.4, is there a
best possible way to do this, or is it best to use the uninstaller that
comes with ruby and unistall the current version and then to use the
ruby one click installer at http://rubyinstaller.rubyforge.org to
install ruby 1.8.4, and finally is there a finished stable 1.8.4
version available?

You can have both both versions installed simultaneously if you wish,
which ever you have on your path is the one that will be used by
default. Just make sure you install 1.8i.4 to a new directory (i.e.,
do not try to install on top of 1.8.2 as people have reported probems
when doing this).

Curt

ta very much indeed for your responce, please just explain if possible
the bit where you say “which ever you have on your path” Ruby would
always be installed in c:/ruby wouldn’t it??
If we leave aside issues of partitioning disk drives and creation of
more than one partition!!
A drive on a computer would be C: and ruby would exist in a directory
in the root called ruby wouldn’t it ?

so if as you say you could instal both 1.8.2 and 1.8.4 where would you
install each one and how would the computer no which one to use when
you run ruby programname.rb… please help… ta cheers thanks

Huw C. wrote:

Bitwise Magazine
www.bitwisemag.com
Dark Neon Ltd.

Thank you very much for your responce, but I do feel that it does not
appear to be wholely relavent to the conversation entirely… I am
attempting to learn more about writing and running ruby programs using
a basic windows xp machine , and at the mo i am not a visual studio
2005 user and do not plan to become one in the future at the current
moment. but thanks for the information ta

as i understand it, there will be quite a few
non-back-compatible changes in ruby 2.0,
what matz calls “maximum breakage”.
is there any summary anywhere on the
net of the changes to come?

If you are a Visual Studio 2005 user, you may be interested in the Ruby
In
Steel environment which we are developing. This is a free programming
Ruby
add-in for VS2005 and we’ll be releasing the first public beta before
the
end of April.

Keep up to date with this project here: http://www.sapphiresteel.com

best wishes
Huw C.

Bitwise Magazine
www.bitwisemag.com
Dark Neon Ltd.

On 4/3/06, julian [email protected] wrote:

you run ruby programname.rb… please help… ta cheers thanks
c:\ruby is merely the default installation directory. You can install
it in any directory your prefer (just make sure there are no space
characters in the path name).

Curt

On 4/3/06, Huw C. [email protected] wrote:

If you are a Visual Studio 2005 user, you may be interested in the Ruby In
Steel environment which we are developing. This is a free programming Ruby
add-in for VS2005 and we’ll be releasing the first public beta before the
end of April.

Keep up to date with this project here: http://www.sapphiresteel.com

Very nice… I’m glad to see this!

Curt

julian wrote:

Huw C. wrote:

If you are a Visual Studio 2005 user, you may be interested in the Ruby In
Steel environment which we are developing. This is a free programming Ruby
add-in for VS2005 and we’ll be releasing the first public beta before the
end of April.

Thank you very much for your responce, but I do feel that it does not
appear to be wholely relavent to the conversation entirely… I am
attempting to learn more about writing and running ruby programs using
a basic windows xp machine , and at the mo i am not a visual studio
2005 user and do not plan to become one in the future at the current
moment. but thanks for the information ta

I’m not a Visual Studio user, preferring (at least for Ruby development)
to use gvim on WinXP, but regardless of platform one should give serious
thought to the choice of Ruby editor.

That you are using Scite may be more a coincidence of packaging than
anything else. You may prefer Scite to the other choices, but if you
haven’t spent a little time trying out alternatives than you may be
doing yourself a disservice.

There have been past threads here on ruby-talk about editor choice, so
you may want to search the archives to get some ideas.


James B.

“Blanket statements are over-rated”