Recently I got in touch with Ruby on Rails. It took a while to get everything work, so I thought it would be a nice idea to share my experiences with you guys. To make it clear: This ain’t gonna be a Ruby on Rails tutorial - I’m still a newbie in this field - it’s just a collection of links and experiences that may be of help, when making your first steps with Ruby on Rails.
First of all you have to set up your environment. Basically you will need a Ruby interpreter, the Rails framework, some additional libraries and a database - most likely this will be MySQL or PostgreSQL. If you are on Windows you may have a look at Instant Rails, an open source tool that will install Ruby, Rails, Apache, and MySQL - all pre-configured and ready to run.
If you’re on a Mac and you don’t wanna use the Terminal, you may download Locomotive, an all-in-one solution, compareable to Instant Rails. Otherwise I would recommend to read Dan Benjamin’s famous article “Building Ruby, Rails, Subversion, Mongrel, and MySQL on Mac OS X”. Just a quick note: make sure that you’ve installed the latest version of XCode, otherwise the installation may fail. Geek note: That’s because older XCode releases use an outdated version of GCC (GNU Compiler Collection).
If you prefer using Linux you may also follow Dan Benjamin’s instructions, mentioned above. Alternatively you may use your distribution’s package manager. Btw just in case you have any additional links, don’t hesitate to post them in the comment section.
There are a bunch of great Ruby on Rails books out there. However I would recommend reading Agile Web Development with Rails
And last but not least make sure that you also subscribe to the official Rails Weblog or to the Ruby on Rails group. Anything else can be found on the official Rails website. So in this spirit - happy coding :)
28 comments so far
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Edward Scherf February 17, 2007 at 07:53 PM
Thanks a lot Wolfgang :D
I myself have been trying to get on the Ruby on Rails bandwagon myself and there is a bit of a learning curve, especially when your hosting provider (Dreamhost) is well known for it’s inability to play will with rails and rails applications sigh
Never the less, this little starter kit will most certainly be helpful! Thanks :D
Luke February 17, 2007 at 08:12 PM
I’m just starting out myself. Yesterday in fact I used this http://tryruby.hobix.com/ which is extremely useful.
Good luck with it Wolfgang, thanks for the post!
Yannic Walter February 17, 2007 at 11:21 PM
RoR is on my to-learn list for some time now.
I hope I’ll pick up the book soon.
Anyway thanks for the links, they seem to be helpful.
Kenneth Love February 18, 2007 at 01:17 AM
Edward – I’m running 3 RoR apps on Dreamhost right now. What are you having problems with?
Adam Patterson February 18, 2007 at 02:53 AM
Hey i had the task of installing Ruby on rails on my PC under XP Pro and that was a chore. i really did not have any experience with the command prompt and all the examples seamed to be run from Mac OSX. and yet once those hurtles were over come it was fairly easy to follow along with the blog tutorial from Ruby on Rails. I think this is a language that has a lot of potential and definitely removes repetitive coding.
I look forward to seeing what you come up with. I think ill get more into it when i get a MAC :)
here are some resources i found that made my experiences less stressful.
Martin Labuschin February 18, 2007 at 02:57 AM
Today I’ve published a German article about Ruby on Rails
I also provide a little bookmark collection about Ruby and Ruby on Rails.
Darren Hoyt February 18, 2007 at 03:01 AM
Great overview so far. I second Luke’s recommendation of the tryruby.hobix tutorial. Digital-Web had a great Ruby synoposis & history article last December.
Jaap Bakker February 18, 2007 at 03:24 AM
This is a great article. I was thinking about getting into Ruby on Rails, and this is just the kick I needed to get to it.
dito February 18, 2007 at 03:28 AM
Can somebody tell me how I can see something in my Browser when i use Locomotive and try to Install Mephisto?
Zach Inglis February 18, 2007 at 04:42 AM
The IRC channel: #rubyonrails on Freenode is my #1 source. It’s fantastic for any help.
Otherwise, I think you covered it well.
Darren Hoyt February 18, 2007 at 07:21 AM
Just noticed this had popped up on the Sitepoint feed recently:
Learn Ruby on Rails: the Ultimate Beginner’s Tutorial
delmore February 18, 2007 at 02:43 PM
dont forget Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby! http://poignantguide.net/ruby/
Scott Mackenzie February 18, 2007 at 05:02 PM
OMG Why’s Poignant Guide rules. Such a great way to learn Ruby. I have to say the best way to get up and running with Rails is Dan Benjamin’s article… as linked in Bartelmes post.
Adam Patterson February 19, 2007 at 02:53 AM
I submitted a comment that is waiting for moderation. it has a few links to some resources i found on Rails.
Hansjörg Schneider February 19, 2007 at 05:15 AM
Genial!
Wolfgang February 19, 2007 at 04:20 PM
Hi Adam, your posting has just been reopened. Thank you guys for your contribution.
Adam Patterson February 19, 2007 at 11:50 PM
Thanks, i was shocked to see i as considered spam :)
They helped me out a tone!
Aaron Bassett February 21, 2007 at 11:15 PM
Well this post was the final kick I needed to start learning RoR (which I’ve been meaning to for months)
I’ve ordered the bible and if it is half as good as everyone has said it is I’ll be very pleased :)
Now all I got to do is come up with a snappy 2.0 name for my new Ruby powered startup! ;)
Benny February 22, 2007 at 02:09 AM
Don´t forget the tutorial from Apple or the Top 30 Ruby on Rails Tutorials
mech February 27, 2007 at 01:58 PM
Ruby and Rails on different Linux distribution really requires some understanding. It happens to be slightly different on different Linux flavor. Here is my take on it:
http://www.yoman.com.sg/2007/2/24/installing-ruby-and-rails-on-fedora
Gerald Mesaric March 10, 2007 at 12:34 AM
What about this project about getting some of the Ruby concepts into a Java-based framework? Anyone heard more about this project (unfortunately forgot the name…), or already tried something out in this direction?
Wolfgang March 10, 2007 at 04:43 PM
I think Groovy on Rails brings some agility to the Java world :) Is this the framework you are talking about?
Gerald Mesaric March 10, 2007 at 06:19 PM
Yep, that’s it – thanks Wolfgang :-)
Peter Pan March 15, 2007 at 07:23 PM
The article was very good
Pat Nakajima March 20, 2007 at 02:58 PM
You want to be careful with some of those resources, since they’re a bit on the older side and might advocate deprecated, or soon to be deprecated methods.
Personally, I’ve found myself turning to Sitepoint book, “Build Your Own Ruby On Rails Web Applications.” It’s the most up to date and it also covers a lot of ground in the Rails-o-sphere.
Lea from What's My IP Address? March 20, 2007 at 11:36 PM
I’ve just picked up RoR for a new site I am building and am finding it really tough – such a different mindeset from PHP.
But I’ll get there… thanks for the extra push :)
Jehzeel Laurente March 30, 2007 at 02:51 PM
wow nice book! I really want to learn this RoR thing. It’s pretty much interesting. But PHP is still more powerful though. But someday, who knows? Maybe RoR will invade the world wide web :)
Tim April 02, 2007 at 02:58 PM
im all for RoR the only off putting part is having to learn a whole new langauge but hey i’ll look into it