Rails - May 2009 - Stoobie Noobie Roobie version questions redux …

‘Fossil fuels are
for facile fools …’. 
 
As  Dr. Nick of the Simpsons Sez : 
Hi Everybody ! 
A couple of months ago (actually, around March 12th I asked
a bunch of questions about what were the then most current versions of Ruby,
Ruby on Rails and ancillary tools that are intended to work with Ruby and Ruby
on Rails.
Unfortunately, I was unable to begin my 1st Rails project
at that time as other areas of my life demanded my immediate attention (among
other things, I buy and sell gold, silver, platinum & palladium bullion. In
case you haven’t noticed the US dollar has most likely begun its terminal swan
dive into that dark, necrotic night of All-American fiduciary oblivion and,
consequently both gold & silver are poised to shortly go through the roof).
So, once again, I’m about to start my 1st Ruby on Rails (Rails)
development project. 
But before I start asking a whole bunch of new questions I’d like to
belatedly thank everyone who responded to my last series of questions.
Specifically, I’d like to thank :
            •
Frederick Cheung of Cambridge
            •
Adam Fields
            •
Scott Trudeau
            •
Michael Nutt
            •
Jonathan S. Katz
            •
Dean Holdren
I’d like to thank you one and all for taking the time to reply to my
questions. 
I’d also like to apologize to you one and all for taking so long to
get back to you and acknowledge your kindness and consideration in replying to
my questions.
It’s been 2 months since I asked my questions (and, I might add, got
your very helpful and informative responses) so I figure, given that things
seem to be moving fairly rapidly forward in the Ruby and the Ruby on Rails
world, I need to ask the same set of questions again.
But, this time I’ll incorporate the helpful information the above
mentioned folks supplied me the last time I asked this set of questions.
So, enough with all the preliminary blather and palaver, and let’s
move on to the questions.
The development platform I’ll be using is a Mac running 10.5 (i.e. :
“Leopard”). 
So, here was the 1st question :
	1. What is the most recent, stable version of Ruby ? 
According to my set of respondents, as of the middle of March (beware
the Ides of March, noble Caesar) the most current version of Ruby was :
            Ruby
– 1.9.1 .
Is this still true or has 1.9.1 been supplanted by a more recent
version ?
 
And, the next question :
	1. What is the most recent, stable version of Ruby on Rails ? 
As of March 15th,
the most stable recent version of Rails was 2.2.2 although 2.3 was expected
imminently.
Is this still true
?
 
And 3 :
	1. Do the 2 versions work together comfortably or are there 
compatibility
issues that I need to be aware of ?
Back then the
answer was :
Ruby 1.8.7 works
with Rails 2.2.2 and Ruby 1.9.1 works with Rails 2.3 .
Is this still true
or has the situation changed yet again ?
 
And 4 :
	1. What is the best version of MySQL I should be using bearing in mind the
answers to questions 1,2 & 3 above ?
The consensus was
that either MySQL 5.0.x or 5.1.x would work although both versions have some
issues but the issues in each case are not precisely the same.
Has this situation changed
since the middle of March ?
 
And 5.
	1. What Application Server would you recommend I use for this project ?
Different people
had different preferences. Among those mentioned were :
 
      • Mongrel
      • thin
      • Apache with
Passenger (aka mod Rails)
      • mod rails
So, I guess my
question here is has anyone’s suggestions/preferences regarding which
application
server they prefer changed ? Are there any new ones that you might feel are
better or easier to work with  than
the ones mentioned above?
 
And 6 :
	1. What source code editor do you recommend I use ? By the way, I’ve 
been
using TextWrangler from Bare Bones Software (version 2.2.1 (186 - 20070214) and
I’ve been pretty happy with it.
Most people here seemed to be pretty happy with
TextMate.
Myself, I’m using TextWrangler, mainly because I’m pretty short on
cash these days.  I should also
mention that it’s pretty good. And, the price (i.e. : free) sure can’t be beat,
unless you started giving me money.
And, finally, I have an additional question.
I’m working on a Macintosh running Leopard (i.e. : Mac OSX 10.5.7).
This means that I’ve got to install a whole bunch of stuff
on my machine. And, what’s more I have to make sure that all the versions of
each one of these tools is the correct one and can work together with all the
other pieces of the development environment.
The folks that sent me advice and suggestions included 2 separate
suggestions on the best way to go about installing all this stuff.
One guy wrote and suggested that I use the Hive Logic article. In case
you’re wondering that’s the article entitled :
Installing Ruby, Rubygems,
Rails, and Mongrel on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
The earl for that article is :
            http://hivelogic.com/articles/view/ruby-rails-leopard#ruby
Now, I’ve used an earlier version of that article to install that set
of tools on Tiger (i.e. Mac OSX 10.4) and it worked out quite well.
Another guy wrote in with the suggestion that I use “MacPorts” to get
started quickly.
 
Unfortunately he didn’t provide an earl for MacPorts but I suppose
that MacPorts is most likely something like the Hive article and is an
alternative way of getting up and running for Ruby & Rails on the Mac.
Does anybody have any more information about MacPorts ?
Does anybody have any opinion on the relative merits (and, I suppose
demerits) of the HiveLogic approach as opposed to MacPorts ?
And, finally, it’s my understanding that Macs running Leopard come
with both Ruby and Rails already installed on them.
So, my questions regarding that situation are as follows :
1.     What version of Ruby does a Mac running Leopard have
installed on it ?
2.     What version of Rails does a Mac running Leopard
have installed on it ?
3.     Where are they ?
4.     Will the presence of preinstalled versions of Ruby
& Rails on Macs running Leopard cause any problems if I try to use either
the HiveLogic or the MacPorts approach to getting up and running using the Ruby
on Rails environment ?
Well, I’d like to thank everyone for their patience in reading this
rather long and plaintive email.
There was a lot to say.
So, if any of you have any useful and helpful advice regarding any of
the questions I’ve asked in this email then please don’t hesitate to send me
your replies.
And …I’d like to thank all of you in advance for your help. 
Comme toujours, here is my contact information : 
simonwhel-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org
 
                     
                     
 
 
 All the best & talk to you soon … Simon. 


      
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On May 24, 4:31 am, Simon Whelan
<simonw...-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> So, here was the 1st question :
>         1. What is the most recent, stable version of Ruby ?
> According to my set of respondents, as of the middle of March (beware
> the Ides of March, noble Caesar) the most current version of Ruby was :
>             Ruby
> – 1.9.1 .
> Is this still true or has 1.9.1 been supplanted by a more recent
> version ?
1.9.1 is the latest stable version of ruby. It''s still pretty new
though (being the first stable version from the 1.9 line) and a lot of
people are still on ruby 1.8.6/7. If you do go for 1.9.1 you may find
that some of the libraries or gems you want to use are not quite ready
for ruby 1.9.1 or that some of the articles you read don''t apply to
1.9.1
>
> And, the next question :
>         1. What is the most recent, stable version of Ruby on Rails ?
> As of March 15th,
2.3.2.
> the most stable recent version of Rails was 2.2.2 although 2.3 was expected
> imminently.
> Is this still true
> ?
>
> And 3 :
>         1. Do the 2 versions work together comfortably or are there

compatibility issues that I need to be aware of ?
> Back then the
> answer was :
> Ruby 1.8.7 works
> with Rails 2.2.2 and Ruby 1.9.1 works with Rails 2.3 .
> Is this still true
that is true.
> or has the situation changed yet again ?
>
> And 4 :
>         1. What is the best version of MySQL I should be using bearing in
mind the answers to questions 1,2 & 3 above ?
Mysql 5.1.x is now the GA release of mysql (although some have
expressed concern that it was made GA before it was ready (especially
with regards to those features that are new in 5.1). Not much has
changed on that front recently.
>
> Unfortunately he didn’t provide an earl for MacPorts but I suppose
> that MacPorts is most likely something like the Hive article and is an
> alternative way of getting up and running for Ruby & Rails on the Mac.
> Does anybody have any more information about MacPorts ?
http://www.macports.org/

MacPorts is not at all what you think it is. It is a packaging system
(derived from the ports system in use in the freebsd world). If you
are thinking about apt, emerge etc... then you''re thinking along the
right lines. There''s a awful lot of open source software that can be
installed via macports. Perhaps the main advantage of something like
macports is that it takes care of dependencies and so on, 99% of the
time it just works. Occasionally you may find that macports doesn''t
have the latest version of the package you want.
> Does anybody have any opinion on the relative merits (and, I suppose
> demerits) of the HiveLogic approach as opposed to MacPorts ?
> And, finally, it’s my understanding that Macs running Leopard come
> with both Ruby and Rails already installed on them.
> So, my questions regarding that situation are as follows :
> 1.     What version of Ruby does a Mac running Leopard have
> installed on it ?
1.8.6
> 2.     What version of Rails does a Mac running Leopard
> have installed on it ?
1.2.3
> 3.     Where are they ?
Deep inside /System/Library/Frameworks (but symlinked to /usr/bin/ruby
and so on)
> 4.     Will the presence of preinstalled versions of Ruby
> & Rails on Macs running Leopard cause any problems if I try to use
either
> the HiveLogic or the MacPorts approach to getting up and running using the
Ruby
> on Rails environment ?
Nope.

Fred