Ruby on Rails has become very popular among web site designers and web programmers because it is designed to increase the speed and ease with which database-driven web sites can be created. If you're eager to start using Ruby on Rails, the first thing you're going to have to do is install it. That's the focus of this article, the first part in a series that will teach you the basics of programming with this versatile framework.
Installing Ruby on Rails - Installing Ruby on Rails for the Mac (Page 4 of 4 )
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!
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