Could some experienced users of Ruby and Rails give me some advice as
to how to set up Ruby and Rails on my XP?
I have read the Pickaxe twice and the Agile book once, now I’m going
to start to mess around.
I have a CS degree, but no real world experience and would like to
start a web development company from the ground up using Ruby and
Rails for development. I have another good paying job with lots of
free time (non computer related) so I don’t have to hit the ground
running to pay any bills. I can build/learn/grow at my pace,
hopefully not too slowly.
Should I set up Ruby and Rails by what’s in the Agile book, or should
I do InstantRails, or OneStepRuby Installer… etc.
Is XP ok or should I set up a *nix environment on my PC?
I can work my way through most problems so in your expert opinions,
how should I get started? Any advice on hosting solutions when I
really get going (someday soon)!
Thanks so much I need to put this CS degree to some good!
Shawn
slindsey3000 wrote:
Could some experienced users of Ruby and Rails give me some advice as
to how to set up Ruby and Rails on my XP?
Thanks so much I need to put this CS degree to some good!
There’s a lot in your post to talk about, but to answer the specific
questions you asked, rather than delve into the business-type questions,
I’d recommend you get a linux installed, or even better, get a little
MacMini to plug into your existing PC system.
Unlike a lot of things, Windows is the minority here, with some kind of
*nix (MacOSX counting there) being the norm.
As far as hosting, I can’t help but recommend Bytemark in the UK. A
basic VPS, including root access, for 15 quid a month. This lets you
configure (and learn about configuring) your own deployment
infrastructure (Apache, Mongrel, MySQL etc etc). The fact that you’re
likely to be deploying to *nix is another argum,ent for getting a *nix
dev environment (so you can practice 
Alan
I’ve been using InstantRails on XP to work through the AWDwRoR book
and it has worked nicely. The latest version integrates with RadRails
and it’s a quick and simple install. What I really like about
InstantRails is that it creates its own environment so you don’t have
to worry about it messing up other applications on your machine.
Jody Baty
http://www.digitallearning.biz
JodyB wrote:
I’ve been using InstantRails on XP to work through the AWDwRoR book
and it has worked nicely. The latest version integrates with RadRails
and it’s a quick and simple install. What I really like about
InstantRails is that it creates its own environment so you don’t have
to worry about it messing up other applications on your machine.
Jody Baty
http://www.digitallearning.biz
Ditto everything Jody said. InstantRails gives you a nice sandbox that
you can play around in and if you don’t enjoy it, just throw the folder
in the trash. It’s the best way to get up and running quickly on XP IMO.
-Drew
Drew O. wrote:
Ditto everything Jody said. InstantRails gives you a nice sandbox that
you can play around in and if you don’t enjoy it, just throw the folder
in the trash. It’s the best way to get up and running quickly on XP IMO.
-Drew
+1 for InstantRails.
I know it’s cheating but I’m starting to use InstantRails as my standard
Ruby install now :-S
My only recommendation would be to change the InstantRails MySQL install
to run on Port 3307 if you are using another installation of MySQL on
your PC - as you may do if you’re running XAMPP or some other apps on
.Net. I have been in that situation cos I had an app from someone else
that needed to work with MySQL and it was a real pain changing the
properties of that application to run with a non-standard installation
of MySQL.
On the other hand, RoR makes it so easy to add a Port to your
database.yml so that you can completely isolate your Rails apps (MySQL
on Port 3307) from any other MySQL database running in your system.
Cheers
Mohit.
John I. wrote:
have you used instarails in a production mode?
or what’s the best way for production on windows (if recommended)
Of course, you can use InstantRails in production - I don’t see any
reason why not. But, you’d probably need to tweak the setup as
required. For small setups (a few simultaneous hits on an Intranet in a
small shop), I think it’d work fine.
But honestly, I’m not using InstantRails in production - I’d imagine
that it’s best to deploy to *nix server… I have an account with
RailsPlayground and HostingRails which is where I intend to send apps
that I want to deploy.
Cheers
Mohit.
have you used instarails in a production mode?
or what’s the best way for production on windows (if recommended)