Ruby-on-Rails

Installing Ruby on Rails for the Mac

If you own a Mac with OS X as your operating system, chances are you already have Ruby installed. To find out, go to Applications>Utilities>Terminal (double click), and then enter ruby-v to check Ruby_s version number. You will hopefully see Ruby version 1.8.2 or later. If not, you will need to install Ruby manually.

Go to http://rubygems.rubyforge.org. Click the Download link. This will open the downloads page. Select the most current version of RubyGems and download it. After you have downloaded the program, go to the directory you saved it in on your Terminal application and enter the following text into your prompt:

tar xzf rubygems-0.8.10.tar.gz

cd rubygems-0.8.10

sudo ruby setup.rb

Next you_ll want to install Rails. To do that, enter the following:

sudo gem install rails

You will be asked if you wish to install several types of dependencies; say yes to all of them.

Installing MySql

You will also need to install a database program if you wish to program in Ruby. You can get MySql for free at http://dev.mysql.com. For this example, I downloaded the Windows Essentials version (4.1.22).

Once the application is downloaded, double click on the MSI file. This will open the MySQL Server Setup Wizard. Click the Next button. Now you will be be asked to choose a setup type. The default is typical, and I recommend using this. Click the Next button again. Finally, click the Install button. Some files will be extracted, and you will be asked to sign up to MySql.com. You can do this now if you like or later. I chose to skip the sign up, and clicked the Next button once more.

And that_s it. You should be all set to begin programming with Ruby on Rails. Fortunately for you, I_ve already written a series to teach how to get started doing just that!