Hi.

I'm new to Ruby, and struggling; Ruby does not seem to be very easy to install 
under Linux.

I can't use the Suse RPM package, as I want the functionality of FOX and 
fxruby, and they aren't on the distro.  So I installed Ruby, FOX, and fxruby 
from the source tars.  After several problems with the install process 
(libraries didn't seem to go where Ruby assumes them to be), by adding links 
and setting environment variables I have managed to get these working; I can 
run trivial programs, and I get the GUI results expected.

The problems just start afresh when I try to add extension libraries, or even 
run programs that need libraries that I think I have already installed.

For example, there are a couple of sample programs that require soap and html 
parser functionality - I thought soap was part of the core, but I installed 
it again in any case, and also installed the html parser stuff.  The installs 
run clean but the programs still give load errors.

I suspect the problem is where the library modules and files are expected to 
be - I just can't sort it out; I've copied everything several times over in 
every place I think they should be; I have multiple copies all the same 
in ../ruby/1.8, ../ruby/site-ruby/1.8, in my home directory ../ruby/1.8 
and ../ruby/site-ruby/1.8. 

I've looked through various websites and documentation, and though there seems 
a lot of it, it's not very well organised and after three days struggling I 
can't find what I'm looking for; my questions are:

Where does ruby expect library and extension files to be? What are the rules?  
Is there a single document that tells me how to sort this mess out?

Can anyone point me?  Ruby seems to be so close to what I want but if it's 
going to be like this all the time 

-- 
Clear skies!
Mike Calder.