Re: Re: Best Rails environment for Windows 7

Michael Pavling
Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:58:33 -0000

On 28 April 2011 01:06, Luis Lavena
<luislavena-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
>> Add a vm running Ubuntu and do your rails work on it. You will have
more
>> support than trying to deal with Windows, also, chances are you will be
>> deploying to a Linux environment so it will put you more on the game.
>
> Could be, but you might be ignoring for a second that this simple
> statement might come up with a steeped learning curve (learn a new OS,
> bash, a package manager, etc).

Well, they''re already going to be learning a new programming language,
and gem package manager, and framework conventions.... I''d assume that
if they can do that, they can wiggle a mouse to the top of a screen
for the menus rather than the bottom, and type slashes in the other
way round :-/

> Now, as proper response to the OP: You can install RailsInstaller:

You''re elucidated a slightly patronising and a little riled response
from me, as this line above of yours is very patronising - suggesting
a VM on Windows is a *proper* response too.

> It provides an out-of-the-box experience for you to start playing with
> Ruby and Rails.
>
> It bundles the initial components like Git and SQLite3, reducing the
> setup/configuration required for creating new applications.

Good luck with all of the little bits of the nice plugins/gems that
you''ll want to use that *don''t work* on Windows. Happy hunting
when
you want to deploy your app somewhere and *no one* supports Rails on
Windows and you need to be familiar with the bash stuff anyway.

The majority of people that start with Rails on Windows fall into two
camps: those that shrug and say "this is pointless, nothing works as
the documentation says" and give up, and those that switch to Mac or
some other *nix on a PC.

Don''t get me wrong, I do quite admire the work that''s gone
into the
"Rails on Windows" tutorials that were posted up over the last month,
but the bottom line is that Rails *really doesn''t* work well on
Windows. It may be possible to run it there, but that doesn''t mean you
should. If anyone is learning Rails for any purpose other than
curiosity, then the sooner they move to *nix the better (for them), so
they may as well start there with a VM.