Ruby for Newbie?!

Scrumpy reply at in_newsgroup.tks
Tue May 21 19:53:57 EDT 2002


jason at jvoegele.com (Jason Voegele) wrote in
news:91acf731.0205200939.41e89a8f at posting.google.com: 

> Scrumpy <reply at in_newsgroup.tks> wrote in message
> news:<ac3maf$81p$2 at hfc.pacific.net.hk>... 
>> I want to learn a programming language.
> 
> I wish you the best.

Thanks

>> 1/ Tools to create standalone apps to ease distribution i.e. no need
>> to have Ruby installed or to ensure no conflicts between the version
>> of Ruby used to develop the app and a different installed version.
>> 
>> Python: Installer & py2exe.
>> RUBY: ?
> 
> Please see
> http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?DistributeARubyAppInASingleExecutable 
> 
> The short answer is that there are a couple of options, but neither
> one is as stable as the Python equivalent.

I followed some of the links in the URL you mentioned and found RubyGems 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rubygems/ but you're right that the options 
are not as stable as Pythons :-(

>> 2/ IDE.
>> Python: Boa Constructor, Pythonwin, IDLE.
>> RUBY: Practical Ruby (basic IDE for Windows). Is there a Linux IDE
>> for Ruby?
> 
> There is also RDE (Ruby Development Environment) for Windows.  Just
> recently, someone released a Ruby plugin for Eclipse, which is a
> development environment written in Java, which runs on Linux and other
> platforms.  Of course, you also have Emacs and vi. :)

:-P

> The most promising project is FreeRIDE (http://www.rubyide.org), which
> is a pure Ruby IDE currently under development.  Unfortunately, the
> FreeRIDE development team has not yet made a release, but they are
> making very good progress.

They have set the mark quite high for themselves but it could be very nice 
if they succeed.

>> 3/ GUI toolkits/libraries. My preference is towards using wxWindows.
>> Python: wxPython, PyQt, PyGTK.
>> RUBY: 
> 
> Ruby has FXRuby (FOX), RubyGnome (Gtk+), rbXPCOM (Mozilla XPToolkit),
> Ruby/FLTK, Ruby/Qt, and Ruby/Tk.  More information at:
> 
> http://www.rubyide.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?GUIFrameworkProject/GUICompariso
> n 

Very interesting! I'd never heard about some of those GUI toolkits like FOX 
and FLTK. Definitely worth investigating! I was surprised how good the 
reviewer made QT sound.

Ease of use, cross platform support and stability, licence and speed I 
guess are what I'd consider when choosing a GUI toolkit.

>> 4/ Web platforms/frameworks etc.
>> Python: mod_snake, mod_python, Webware.
>> RUBY: mod_ruby - any comments about it's stability/suitability for
>> web app development? Any Ruby equivalent to Webware and it's PHP like
>> (psp) function?
> 
> There are several that can be found on the Ruby Application Archive
> (RAA).  A few that spring immediately to mind are mod_ruby, IOWA, and
> WEBrick.  ERuby is the "PHP-like" ruby tool.  I don't know anything
> about Webware.

Webware is here http://webware.sourceforge.net/

I read that mod_ruby is not very stable. Do you have any experience using 
it?

As for the others, I'll have to investigate how stable and well supported 
they are.

>> 5/ One file Interpreter i.e. to use on a shared hosting co.'s server
>> that doesn't have Ruby installed.
>> Python: mxCGIPython (uses the freeze tool).
>> RUBY: ?
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean here.

For an explanation see http://www.egenix.com/files/python/mxCGIPython.html

This type of support is probably only useful during my initial learning 
phase and perhaps when creating/updating small, non-critical websites. 

>> Is there an 'offical' Ruby binary for Windows? It looks like there
>> are three unofficial ones created using three different compilers!
> 
> It depends on what you mean by 'official'.  The "de facto" official
> Ruby binary for Windows is from "The Pragmatic Programmers", Dave
> Thomas and Andrew Hunt.  You can find it here:
> 
> http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/ruby/downloads/ruby-install.html
> 
> This version is now built using Microsoft Visual C++.  Previous
> version were built with gcc/cygwin.  Windows binaries built with VC++,
> gcc/cygwin, and mingw are all available for download.  You can also
> download the source and build with any C compiler you'd like.

Official as in it's a Matsumoto Yukihiro (or a sanctioned Ruby core 
developer) certified binary, preferably released on http://www.ruby-
lang.org/en/download.html.

As per Python, the official Ruby Windows binary release would keep up to 
date with, at least, the stable Ruby source release.

Unfortunately the status of Pragmatic Programmer's Windows binary is alpha.

>> Finally, is there a good Ruby book aimed at newbie programmers (not 
>> existing programmers new to Ruby)?
> 
> It has not yet been released, but Pete McBreen, author of "Software
> Craftmanship", is currently writing a Ruby book aimed at newbie
> programmers.  Until this book is completed, the next best thing would
> be Dave Thomas' and Andrew Hunt's "Programming Ruby", which is
> available online at:
> 
> http://www.rubycentral.com/book/

I'd already looked at "Programming Ruby" in a local bookshop and found that 
it's not an entry level programming book :)

Once it's available, I would like to see Pete McBreen's "Learn
how to be a software developer" book. Hopefully it'll be very Ruby centric 
and available soon ;-)

In a newsgroup thread posting by Pete McBreen in Dec 2001, he wrote that 
"someone" was thinking about writing a Ruby version of "Thinking Like A
Computer Scientist". I found the Python version 
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/ a few weeks ago and if I start 
learning Python then that'll be my entry text. If the Ruby version is 
available then that would be very useful.

> however this message has still not made it to comp.lang.ruby

I've been using the same ISP since 1995 and comp.lang.ruby is the first 
newsgroup with which I've had this problem. It's good I also reposted to 
this newsgroup ;-) Do you know of an alternate NNTP server that I could 
connect with to access comp.lang.ruby?

The only comment I can make at the moment regarding Python vs Ruby is that 
both languages seem quite capable but Python 'currently' seems to have an 
edge as far as the maturity of it's surrounding/supporting projects are 
concerned.

I think my choice will boil down to which language has the best overall 
support and which language's syntax I personally prefer. In the case of 
syntax, this may mean that I'll have to initially learn to code in both 
Python and Ruby!

Cheers,
Scrumpy :)



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