Utter Newbie, HELP!!!!

rubyonrails-talk
1

Dear Ruby on Rails Expert with Compassion for a Newbie,

(:->)

I just got started. I tried:

At the Windows Command Prompt: ruby puts "Hello, world!" ^D

The response is: -:2: syntax error, unexpected '^', expecting $end

I am using Ruby 2.2 (ruby186-26.exe). What can I do, besides pull out my hair? This can be very discouraging for a complete novice.

Roger

2

I am by no means any expert and consider myself a newbie also but I am sure that

^D

actually means

control D

Brandon

3

You probably want to use irb for that type of fiddling...

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\arc>irb irb(main):001:0> puts 'Hello World' Hello World => nil irb(main):002:0>

4

So where is irb?

I have been looking for it for some time now.

I seems like this Ruby is very much a work in progress. It seems to have a lot of bugs and it seems to be very difficult to work with.

Roger

5

I have never used ruby in windows, but it has been around for a while and on Linux and OS X it works flawlessly.

6

ROGER BIRD wrote:

So where is irb?

Sorry for the incomplete answer...

irb (Interactive Ruby) is another package to load on your machine...

For linux (Ubuntu 8.04 is my flavor),

sudo apt-get install ruby sudo apt-get install ri sudo apt-get install rdoc

would be the bare minimum I would do...

Windows? I think it came in my general install of ruby186-26.exe

And thus far, I have yet to encounter a real Ruby issue, usually it's just a Silly User Error, meaning mine, or my lack of understanding on the Ruby syntax (it is light years ahead of what I develop with day-to-day).

7

I am the psychopathic programmer: I do not make Silly User Errors. The World is against me.

(:->)

All I have done today is Silly User Errors. If you guys say that Ruby is FrickingFantastic and works just fine in Windows, I am going to believe you and I am going to push on and learn this and make it work for me. I saw that video of that guy doing a blog page, and although I have very little idea what he was doing when he was doing it, I am impressed with the result.

Roger

8

Ruby on windows works fine. The package you have there works fine for general web development with Rails. However you've got a lot of things oyu have to learn in order to be able to build a blog in 10 minutes.

I have a couple of resources you might find useful though:

First, I maintain a simple tutorial for beginners which you can get from Cooking With Ruby On Rails 4 - A Rails Crash Course | New Auburn Personal Computer Services LLC which will give you a basic introduction to Rails. You'll build a small application and then give you some places to go next.

Next, I really recommend the "Agile Web Development with Rails" book. You can get a PDF right now and it will get you going on the right path. Pragmatic Bookshelf: By Developers, For Developers

After that, get working on stuff. Build things and ask questions when you get stuck. The community is awesome and is willing to help you.

-Brian