# Back with more questions: mono 2.4.x & IR 0.9.x **URL:** \ **Category:** IronRuby\ **Created:** [November 26, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-with-more-questions-mono-2-4-x-ir-0-9-x/179480 "2009-11-26T01:23:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andrew\_SSTownley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@Andrew\_SSTownley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Andrew_SSTownley)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-with-more-questions-mono-2-4-x-ir-0-9-x/179480/1 "2009-11-26T01:23:20Z")
Hi Folks, Since I hear such good things about the rate at which features are being added to the project (and since it coincides with needing to write some cross-platform UI code), I thought I’d give the new version a go. Here’s my environment: $ mono --version Mono JIT compiler version 2.4.2.3 (tarball Mon Nov 23 08:34:29 GMT 2009) Copyright (C) 2002-2008 Novell, Inc and Contributors. [www.mono-project.com](http://www.mono-project.com) TLS: \_\_thread GC: Included Boehm (with typed GC) SIGSEGV: altstack Notifications: epoll Architecture: amd64 Disabled: none $ mono bin/ir.exe --version IronRuby 0.9.2.0 on .NET 2.0.0.0 $ uname -a Linux linna 2.6.24-25-generic #1 SMP Tue Oct 20 06:49:12 UTC 2009 x86\_64 GNU/Linux I’m having all kinds of trouble getting the examples to even run. When I try any of them, I get complaints about not being able to load libraries, e.g. the DiskUse demo: $ mono …/…/bin/ir.exe app.rb :0:in `require’: no such file to load – WindowsBase (LoadError) from app.rb:16 …not to mention having all sorts of issues getting the command-line tools to run in Linux due to environment issues that I don’t really understand (and I’ve been a Linux user since 1993 and a UNIX user since 1990). It sure seems like there’s some environment magic that’s needed, but I can’t figure out what it really is. Nothing that I’ve tried that seemed like it should work did the trick. Q: is there an up-to-date guide for getting IronRuby working with Mono 2.4 anywhere? Everything I could find with google seemed at least 2 yrs old. There aren’t any obvious links from either the ironruby website or from the mono site. Clearly based on Jimmy’s OSCON 2009 post: [Jimmy Schementi \> IronRuby at OSCON 2009: Mono, Moonlight, and scripting open source apps](http://blog.jimmy.schementi.com/2009/07/ironruby-at-oscon-2009-mono-moonlight.html), it should all be working swimmingly. Apologies if this is a really dumb question. For what I need to do at the moment, I need to quickly prototype some small applications that need to work on Windows, Linux and OSX. From what I’ve seen, .NET & Mono seem to be the only real choice for this at the moment, but I’d prefer to not have to write C# code when I’m doing the prototypes (plus I’ve lots of ruby library code that I’ve already written for other purposes). What’s the quickest way to get everything up and running (with some examples of actually running stuff from the command line on Linux)? Thanks in advance for your assistance. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do with IronRuby since I looked at it a few months ago. 🙂 Cheers, ## ast Andrew S. Townley [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) [http://atownley.org](http://atownley.org) ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_SSTownley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@Andrew\_SSTownley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Andrew_SSTownley)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 9:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-with-more-questions-mono-2-4-x-ir-0-9-x/179480/2 "2009-11-26T09:07:59Z")
[http://dlrci.colliertech.org/ironruby/](http://dlrci.colliertech.org/ironruby/) Those builds are done on a mono machine The console is a bit wonky at this point on mono. I don’t know if it’s a mono thing or an IronRuby thing but you can’t use arrow keys in the console or tab etc. It takes the characters just doesn’t interpret them. To make something run on linux download one of the packages and extract in a folder, then add the bin path in that folder to your PATH env variable. The thing is the demo you tried are WPF demo’s and they don’t work on mono because mono doesn’t implement that technology. If you’re going cross-platform and you want a similar experience on all platforms you’re probably looking at using Qt, GTK# or Winforms at this as GUI toolkit. In about 8-10 months I guess silverlight 3 is a good option, and when moonlight catches up to silverlight 4 then Silverlight is the only choice that makes sense (money and time wise) I guess for building cross-platform apps and providing the same experience on all of them. ## IronRuby is the Ruby language on the .NET framework so if you’re new to both it can hurt and the msdn docs don’t yet show a ruby language tickbox so it will be of great help if you at least know how to read C# or VB. I hope this helps you to get started, if not keep sending emails 🙂 Met vriendelijke groeten - Best regards - Salutations Ivan Porto C. Blog: [http://flanders.co.nz](http://flanders.co.nz) Google Wave: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid Twitter: [http://twitter.com/casualjim](http://twitter.com/casualjim) Author of IronRuby in Action ([http://manning.com/carrero](http://manning.com/carrero)) ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_SSTownley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@Andrew\_SSTownley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Andrew_SSTownley)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 9:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-with-more-questions-mono-2-4-x-ir-0-9-x/179480/3 "2009-11-26T09:27:54Z")
Hi Ivan, On Thu, 2009-11-26 at 09:04 +0100, Ivan Porto C. wrote: > [http://dlrci.colliertech.org/ironruby/](http://dlrci.colliertech.org/ironruby/) > > Those builds are done on a mono machine Thanks for the pointer to the other builds. I’ll give that a go later today. I did notice the thing about the console (with the colors), but from google, it seems that’s a Mono issue and not an IronRuby issue. > The console is a bit wonky at this point on mono. I don’t know if it’s > a mono thing or an IronRuby thing but you can’t use arrow keys in the > console or tab etc. It takes the characters just doesn’t interpret > them. I occasionally use irb for quick tests, but most of the time, I just write simple little scripts and run them with the main ruby interpreter. > To make something run on linux download one of the packages and > extract in a folder, then add the bin path in that folder to your PATH > env variable. > > The thing is the demo you tried are WPF demo’s and they don’t work on > mono because mono doesn’t implement that technology. It’s been a while since I did any C# development (pre-WPF), and that was mostly command-line and library stuff. I did do a few WinForms things, but not a lot. Sorry for the confusion. > If you’re going cross-platform and you want a similar experience on > all platforms you’re probably looking at using Qt, GTK# or Winforms at > this as GUI toolkit. > In about 8-10 months I guess silverlight 3 is a good option, and when > moonlight catches up to silverlight 4 then Silverlight is the only > choice that makes sense (money and time wise) I guess for building > cross-platform apps and providing the same experience on all of them. WinForms was my plan for the moment. Going the silverlight route is too many layers of alpha for what I’m trying to do (my own stuff, IronRuby and the UI toolkit would just be too much! 🙂 > IronRuby is the Ruby language on the .NET framework so if you’re new > to both it can hurt and the msdn docs don’t yet show a ruby language > tickbox so it will be of great help if you at least know how to read > C# or VB. > I hope this helps you to get started, if not keep sending emails 🙂 Thanks for the help and the pointers. I would’ve done most of my C# with .NET 1.1, but I’ve been using ruby pretty actively for about 5 years, including fighting with trying to use MRI and GTK+ on Linux for the last couple of years and experiencing random crashes due to the incompatible threading models. Even if I have to use the WinForms package for the UI (which I vaguely remember from doing some MFC work back in 99-01), at least there’s a common, underlying runtime for all the bits that should play nicer together than what I’ve been doing. Ruby 1.9 isn’t an option for me because I have too many dependencies that don’t seem to work without changes (based on a quick re-try of that last night). Again, thanks for all the help. That should be enough to get me up and running, and Thibaut sent me a link to some WinForms/IronRuby examples too. I’ll let you know if I have any more issues getting started. Cheers, ast * * * > wrote: > $ mono --version > > ``` > I try any of them, I get complaints about not being able to > tools to run in Linux due to environment issues that I don't > with Mono > > written for other purposes). > > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core > > ``` > > * * * > > Ironruby-core mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core](http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core) > – > Andrew S. Townley [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [http://atownley.org](http://atownley.org) ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_SSTownley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@Andrew\_SSTownley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Andrew_SSTownley)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 10:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-with-more-questions-mono-2-4-x-ir-0-9-x/179480/4 "2009-11-26T10:04:46Z")
You can also look in my github account the samples for my book are published there. I don’t have Webforms or Winforms samples there (except for the one provided by thibaut for his Magic DSL), because I declared those techs dead a few years ago. A GUI toolkit I want to give a try sometime in the future is clutter [Clutter Project – Have fun!](http://www.clutter-project.org/docs/clutter/stable/). It’s a .NET based OSS OpenGL GUI toolkit. But all those toolkits IMHO are really stop gaps until SL is mature enough and Moonlight gets to SL4. (SL3 =\> no rich-text editor which is used often in LOB apps, OOB mode is still sandboxed) * * * Met vriendelijke groeten - Best regards - Salutations Ivan Porto C. Blog: [http://flanders.co.nz](http://flanders.co.nz) Google Wave: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid Twitter: [http://twitter.com/casualjim](http://twitter.com/casualjim) Author of IronRuby in Action ([http://manning.com/carrero](http://manning.com/carrero)) ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_SSTownley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@Andrew\_SSTownley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Andrew_SSTownley)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 11:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/back-with-more-questions-mono-2-4-x-ir-0-9-x/179480/5 "2009-11-26T11:55:59Z")
On Thu, 2009-11-26 at 09:58 +0100, Ivan Porto C. wrote: > You can also look in my github account the samples for my book are > published there. Thanks Ivan, I will. > I don’t have Webforms or Winforms samples there (except for the one > provided by thibaut for his Magic DSL), because I declared those techs > dead a few years ago. I know what you mean, but sometimes when a technology’s declared “dead” is when it becomes ubiquitous enough to be useful! 🙂 > A GUI toolkit I want to give a try sometime in the future is clutter > [Clutter Project – Have fun!](http://www.clutter-project.org/docs/clutter/stable/). > It’s a .NET based OSS OpenGL GUI toolkit. But all those toolkits IMHO > are really stop gaps until SL is mature enough and Moonlight gets to > SL4. (SL3 =\> no rich-text editor which is used often in LOB apps, OOB > mode is still sandboxed) Yeah, that would be a problem for me. This is essentially LOB-ish. Cheers, ast > On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 9:27 AM, Andrew S. Townley [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > Thanks for the pointer to the other builds. I’ll give that a > \> console or tab etc. It takes the characters just doesn’t > \> To make something run on linux download one of the packages > > ``` > > all platforms you're probably looking at using Qt, GTK# or > > language > about 5 > common, underlying runtime for all the bits that should play > me up and > --- > > version a > > TLS: __thread > > Linux linna 2.6.24-25-generic #1 SMP Tue Oct 20 > > libraries, e.g. the DiskUse demo: > I don't > > seemed like it should work did the trick. > > from the mono site. > > small applications that need to work on Windows, > > already > forward to > > http://atownley.org > > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core > > ``` > > * * * > > Ironruby-core mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core](http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core) > – > Andrew S. Townley [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [http://atownley.org](http://atownley.org)