On Tue, Mar 13, 2007 at 10:42:12PM +0900, Rick DeNatale wrote:
> On 3/13/07, 7stud 7stud <dolgun / excite.com> wrote:
> ...
> >One thing I liked about it: detailed installation
> >instructions.  Not such a big deal for windows users because of one
> >click installation packages, but there are detailed installation
> >instructions for Mac OS 10.4, and separate installation instructions for
> >Linux.  It's true there are installation instructions for Mac OS 10.4 on
> >the net, but unfortunately I can't even find the /usr/local directory
> >where everything is supposed to be installed.  Am I supposed to create
> >that directory?  Who knows.  I hate installation instructions like that;
> >you feel lost before you can even start.
> 
> This IS one thing with Ruby for Rails doesn't cover.  There are
> resources to help, such as the rails web-site and the rails mailing
> list.  On the other hand if you really need such detailed instructions
> AWDWR does a very good job of leading you step by step.

I tend to feel that the appropriate development platform for any
non-.NET and non-ColdFusion web development is a unixlike OS.  For
people learning from their homes, then, either Linux or *BSD is probably
what you should be learning.  Yes, it's entirely possible to learn on MS
Windows, and I'm fully aware that it's not always practical to get a new
OS up and running, but it's important enough so that if you have
reasonable opportunity to do so, you should definitely consider getting
some kind of free unix running and use that.

One reason is that in deployment Rails benefits from a unixy
environment.  For instance, remote access is better protected by SFTP
than FTP, and free unices provide that capability by default whereas
with MS Windows setting up an SSH server to handle SFTP is a bit of a
chore.  It's also the case that shared hosting solutions offering Rails
are, as far as I've seen thus far, all Linux and FreeBSD systems.

One of the best advantages to learning Rails on a free unix platform,
though, is installation.  When I first got Agile Web Development with
Rails, I read through the section on installation -- then I ignored it,
and typed in "apt-get install rails" at the command line.  Voila,
installed.


> 
> One thing I like about AWDWR 2nd ed, as opposed to Ruby for Rails is
> that it covers migrations and uses them from the beginning to do
> database setup and schema evolution.  Ruby for Rails does this using
> mysql commands. Some might like that better, but I prefer to stick
> with Ruby and Rails for this.  My first encounter with Rails was using
> the 1st ed of AWDWR, which was before migrations, when I found out
> about them later, I slapped my head like those commercials "Wow! I
> could have had a V-8"  (apologies to those who aren't attuned to US
> commercials, V-8 is a mixed-vegetable juice).

I have the first edition, so unless you're talking about migrating web
applications from other languages/frameworks to Rails, I'm afraid I
don't know what you're talking about at first glance.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
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