Installing RoR for a Newbie is a nightmare

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi,

I'm a newbie who's tried over a half dozen times now to install the full Ruby and All-in-One RoR app for my Windows XP machine. Frustratingly, I haven't been able to ever correctly get the programs to load and work. I've tried the RoR site, youtube tutorials, and other assorted websites for an easy to follow and ACCURATE description. Often times the problem is in getting gem to load, or getting the application to work, or other assorted problems that a newbie like myself might not be able to troubleshoot. I've also tried connecting to the RoR community using the IRC but to no avail. Should I just quit before ever having really begun? I'm stubborn so I'll probably keep at it, but I'd love to hear of any good resources if you know of any.

Thanks,

Squashua

2

Hi, you’ll need to much more detail about the issues that you’re having

for people of this group to better assist you. For example, when you

try install Ruby and/or All-in-One RoR app, what steps have you taken

and what issues/errors are you seeing?

-Conrad

3

I would stay away from Instant Rails if you can. It may be good starting out, but it is no longer under active development, so you may run into some serious issues down the road.

Here is the tutorial I followed to manually get ruby/gems/rails up and running on a vista machine:

http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/RailsOnWindows

Hope it helps!

Ethan Gunderson

4

Thanks Conrad,

So, for example. but 1.I downloaded Ruby and stored on my C drive 2.then I downloaded RubyGems. I tried using the command line to extract Gems (per instructions: ruby setup.rb) but that didn't work. I seem to have problems with command line btw. No matter, I found the RubyGems.exe file and ran it by double clicking. Ok so far, I think. 3. Instructions state to install rails via command line with "gem install rails" (I'm within the Ruby directory cuz that's where gem is stored) but I get an error message that says: "gem is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file"...still no matter (perhaps) because I saw that something already loaded rails into another directory ...so to this point the installation is not going according to RoR's download instructions 4. assuming that I have Ruby, RubyGems, and Rails, it appears to me I should move onto the next step: creating an application skeleton. but I don't understand what i'm supposed to do with the instructions:

rails path/to/your/new/application cd path/to/your/new/application ruby script/server

What is that command doing? What's my new application? Is there an example of path/to/your/new/application is supposed to look like or am I suppsed to type exactly what's above (which doesn't seem right to me)?

...so that's as far as I've gotten. At this point I don't know if steps 2 and 3 were successful and I don't feel I'm ready for step 4. I've found this process confusing and would like to give the site's content manager some feedback that there could be more helpful instructions (for me, at least). : )

Thanks!

Squashua

5

HI Conrad,

Unsure if I’m supposed to reply to you or the group or both (shows how

much of a newbie I am). Please let me know if I should just reply to

the group in the future…Here’s what I posted to the group:

Please always post to the group so that others can follow the thread unless someone

says otherwise.

Thanks Conrad,

So, for example.

but

1.I downloaded Ruby and stored on my C drive

OK

2.then I downloaded RubyGems. I tried using the command line to

extract Gems (per instructions: ruby setup.rb) but that didn’t work. I

seem to have problems with command line btw. No matter, I found the

RubyGems.exe file and ran it by double clicking. Ok so far, I think.

OK

  1. Instructions state to install rails via command line with "gem

install rails" (I’m within the Ruby directory cuz that’s where gem is

stored) but I get an error message that says: "gem is not recognized

as an internal or external command, operable program or batch

file"…still no matter (perhaps) because I saw that something already

loaded rails into another directory

…so to this point the installation is not going according to RoR’s

download instructions

Now, you’ll need to add the parent directory ruby.exe and gem.exe to

your PATH. For now, you can go to the location gem.exe and perform

the following to install the current version of rails.

gem install rails

or

gem.exe install rails

  1. assuming that I have Ruby, RubyGems, and Rails, it appears to me I

should move onto the next step: creating an application skeleton. but

I don’t understand what i’m supposed to do with the instructions:

rails path/to/your/new/application

The above command creates a rails application.

cd path/to/your/new/application

The above command changes your current directory to

the root of the rails application you created in the previous

step.

ruby script/server

The above command starts the web server.

What is that command doing? What’s my new application? Is there an

example of path/to/your/new/application is supposed to look like or am

I suppsed to type exactly what’s above (which doesn’t seem right to

me)?

Please see my above comments. Also, I would recommend completing

the following tutorial starting with step 3.2:

http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started_with_rails.html

6

Sorry, but I still don't understand step 3. You wrote:

"Now, you'll need to add the parent directory ruby.exe and gem.exe to your PATH. For now, you can go to the location gem.exe and perform the following to install the current version of rails.

gem install rails

or

gem.exe install rails"

I don't know how to add a parent directory. Do I just drag and drop the ruby and rails directories into one larger directory? Do I go to the directory, C:\rails\ruby and then run the command(s) you provided? Because I get the same error statement. In addition, I don't see ruby.exe and gem.exe anywhere, but then I already installed them in steps 1 and 2. Didn't I? So why then do I need to reinstall the two executables? I think I need more context to know what I'm supposed to do. Again, I"m sorry but this step is not as straightforward as more experienced programmers may think. : )

-squashua

7

Hi, you’ll need to verify what has and hasn’t been installed on your system.

Also, you’ll need to determine where they were installed so that you can add

it to your PATH. The following link shows you how to update your PATH on

Windows:

http://www.nerdydork.com/update-windows-path-without-rebooting.html

-Conrad

8

I think InstantRails is actually a great way to install Ruby and Rails on a Windows machine, even though it hasn't been updated since the end of 2007. I still use it for Rails development on Windows. You can use it to install a working Rails 2.0 system and then upgrade to the newest Rails from there.

I believe these would be the steps to get Rails working and up-to- date, although I admit I didn't just try this:

1. Install and run InstantRails 2. Launch a command prompt from InstantRails 3. gem update --system 4. gem update rails

9

I didn't really read through everyone's suggestions but it may be even more helpful to get a good Linux distro, like Ubuntu. It's fairly easy to install and that way you won't muck up your Windows installation either. Plus, there are TONS of tutorials on how to install rails on Ubuntu or another flavor of Linux. If you have a Mac at your disposal it would be the trendy way to go too! But, Linux works just as good. Not to mention, using Linux will force you to become more knowledgeable about the underlinings of your entire stack (the software that drives your product). It's definitely a good thing.

Now, learn Ruby.

10

Have you tried one click installer for windows? http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/47082/ruby186-27_rc2.exe You don't need to install rubygems then, you can simply run cmd and 'gem install rails'

11

We do an All in One installer: Ruby, gems, Rails, MySQL and, optionally our IDE, Ruby In Steel (either a free or commercial edition), including (optionally) a free version of Visual Studio.

http://www.sapphiresteel.com/spip?page=download

best wishes

Huw Collingbourne SapphireSteel Software http://www.sapphiresteel.com

12

I have to echo someone from above, why not try out a Linux distro instead. Whenever you are going to be deploying your app, it is probably going onto a box with some distro of Linux on it. I always like developing on a system as close to my deployment as possible, which means Ubuntu on my laptop, desktop, and any server I use.

So far, that has been the best for me.

13

Hi, Yes, I tried instant Rails and was unable to get that to work too. *sigh I found this good tutorial but when I do it I can never get my system to recognize Ruby, no matter how many times I reinstall. I think I'm going to give up for now. I guess I need someone to sit down with me and walk through the install. Thanks to all, squashua

14

Try Instant Rails, just download & unzip!

Cheers, Sazima

15

Rails is largely cmdline driven, you'll have to get used to that.

If I'm not mistaken, Netbeans does a lot of these things for you through its graphical interface, so you might feel more comfortable using it. But remeber, unless your host provider is based on Windows (what I seriously doubt), you'll have to use the cmdline anyway...

Cheers, Sazima

16

Hi, I would recommend giving InstantRails another try. What issue
were you having InstantRails?

-Conrad

17

Has anyone pointed out the root problem here is Windows?

Install either CygWin or Linux, and spend more time programming and less time futzing with the platform!!

18

Hi Philip,

I think this defeats the purpose - many people including me are using Rails on Windows and have no problems. ( everything manually installed and using Netbeans IDE )

It should work, it does work.

Personally I find this Windows/Mac comparison elitist. They can both co-exist quite happily. At the end of the day isn't the whole point of developing Web Applications that it does not matter what O/S the end user is on ?

BTW: I am a Windows and Mac owner - I do RoR on WIndows because I find some things annoying on the Mac.

cheers Dave

19

Hi everyone,

First off, thanks so much for your interest and help. I sat down with a colleague today and in 5 minutes he had me up and going. It appears with my installs and reinstalls it created a ruby folder (rubygems-1.3.1) and a bin folder. Apparently it's the bin folder where I wanted my PATH to go and not the other. Setting the PATH to bin and then running the command line scripts made everything work.

So thanks again!

Sincerely,

Squashua

20

Good on you for persisting.... I'm sure things will run smoothly from now on. Good luck. Dave Porter