I was going through RubyCorner’s updated blog list and the top of the list is the Ruby on Windows blog. Looks like a decent source of information. If you, like myself, are primarily interested in Ruby development on Windows then check it out.
[Update: Merb is now working on Windows]
Previously I ran into this error when trying to get merb running on Windows:
C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/RubyInline-3.6.5/lib/inline.rb:397:in ``': No such file or directory - cl -nologo -LD -Werror -MD -Zi -O2b2xg- -G6 -I C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/i386-mswin32 -I C:/InstantRails/ruby/include -o "C:/Users/Robert/AppData/Local/Temp/.ruby_inline/Inline_ParseTree_fa12.so" "C:/Users/Robert/AppData/Local/Temp/.ruby_inline/Inline_ParseTree_fa12.c" -link /LIBPATH:"C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib" /DEFAULTLIB:"msvcrt-ruby18.lib" /INCREMENTAL:no /EXPORT:Init_Inline_ParseTree_fa12 (Errno::ENOENT) from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/RubyInline-3.6.5/lib/inline.rb:397:in `build' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/RubyInline-3.6.5/lib/inline.rb:679:in `inline' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ParseTree-2.0.2/lib/parse_tree.rb:243 from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `require' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ruby2ruby-1.1.7/lib/ruby2ruby.rb:4 from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:32:in `gem_original_require' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:32:in `require' ... 13 levels... from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/merb-0.4.1/lib/merb/server.rb:500:in `run' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/merb-0.4.1/bin/merb:6 from C:/InstantRails/ruby/bin/merb:16:in `load' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/bin/merb:16
It turns out that merb depends on RubyInline which is the Ruby way to generate C code via Ruby. Why does it require C code generation? Honestly I’m not interested enough to continue digging. I’m not installing gcc on this box. A quick glance into inline.rb shows that this is a gcc-specific generator and I’m not inclined to spend a day writing the VC interface just to get another step further with merb.
Perhaps I’ll try merb out on my desktop sometime - I dual boot it to Ubuntu - but the point of having it on the laptop was so that I could veg out in bed after the kids were asleep and the wife and I are winding down (and I’m not putting Ubuntu on this machine - Vista is very stable and everything is working how I want it - I’m not going to tempt fate by changing partitions and adding grub). I know I could remote in to the desktop via any number of protocols but this was just to see what I thought of merb. I think at this point I’ve figure that out.
Merb looks interesting but has taken, so far, a very unix-centric development turn. Rails is far more platform neutral and is therefore more compelling to me.
I’ll continue to keep an eye on merb, though. It looks promising.
[Update: Merb is now working on Windows]
After getting merb installed I created a project using “merb myapp” - this worked fine. Next I tried just running “merb” to see where I was at.
Merb started with these options:---:merb_root: C:/InstantRails/projects/merb_1/myapp :reloader_time: 0.5 :cache_templates: false :use_mutex: true :session_id_cookie_only: true :session_secret_key: C:/INSTANTRAILS/PROJECTS/MERB_1/MYAPP5259 :host: 0.0.0.0 :query_string_whitelist: [] :reloader: true :exception_details: true :environment: development :port: “4000″ Define INLINEDIR or HOME in your environment and try again
The error “Define INLINEDIR or HOME in your environment and try again” was not expected but I’m game.
I looked around for a place to define environment variables (since “:environment: development” seemed to hint that there would be one).
So I tried the obvious directory listing:
C:\InstantRails\projects\merb_1\myapp>dir development.rb /s Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 2256-DBBA Directory of C:\InstantRails\projects\merb_1\myapp\config\environments 11/11/2007 12:48 AM 44 development.rb 1 File(s) 44 bytes
I opened it and changed it’s contents to:
puts "Loaded DEVELOPMENT Environment..." ENV['INLINEDIR'] = “C:/Users/Robert/AppData/Local/Temp”
But the error persisted. So I just set INLINEDIR in the environment.
Further … but now a new error:
C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/RubyInline-3.6.5/lib/inline.rb:397:in ``': No such file or directory - cl -nologo -LD -Werror -MD -Zi -O2b2xg- -G6 -I C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/i386-mswin32 -I C:/InstantRails/ruby/include -o "C:/Users/Robert/AppData/Local/Temp/.ruby_inline/Inline_ParseTree_fa12.so" "C:/Users/Robert/AppData/Local/Temp/.ruby_inline/Inline_ParseTree_fa12.c" -link /LIBPATH:"C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib" /DEFAULTLIB:"msvcrt-ruby18.lib" /INCREMENTAL:no /EXPORT:Init_Inline_ParseTree_fa12 (Errno::ENOENT) from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/RubyInline-3.6.5/lib/inline.rb:397:in `build' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/RubyInline-3.6.5/lib/inline.rb:679:in `inline' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ParseTree-2.0.2/lib/parse_tree.rb:243 from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in `require' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ruby2ruby-1.1.7/lib/ruby2ruby.rb:4 from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:32:in `gem_original_require' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:32:in `require' ... 13 levels... from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/merb-0.4.1/lib/merb/server.rb:500:in `run' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/merb-0.4.1/bin/merb:6 from C:/InstantRails/ruby/bin/merb:16:in `load' from C:/InstantRails/ruby/bin/merb:16
Is it just me or does that look like it’s trying to run a C compiler?
Investigating now…
[Update: Merb is now working on Windows and the errors described in this post have been fixed in the latest svn trunk]
Following the merb installation stepson my Vista laptop I discovered that the “rake install” was failing because the Rakefile contained explicit calls to sudo (and chmod).
When executing “rake install” the result was:
C:\InstantRails\merb>rake install (in C:/InstantRails/merb) rake package (in C:/InstantRails/merb) Successfully built RubyGem Name: merb Version: 0.4.1 File: merb-0.4.1.gem sudo gem install pkg/merb-0.4.1 --no-rdoc --no-ri rake aborted! Command failed with status (0): [sudo gem install pkg/merb-0.4.1 --no-rdoc ...] C:/InstantRails/merb/rakefile:76 (See full trace by running task with –trace)
I modified the Rakefile to not use sudo on win32 (replacing it with “” instead) and to only execute chmod when not win32. The patch is:
Index: Rakefile
===================================================================
--- Rakefile (revision 937)
+++ Rakefile (working copy)
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
NAME = "merb"
VERS = "0.4.1"
CLEAN.include ['**/.*.sw?', '*.gem', '.config']
+
+SUDO = (PLATFORM =~ /win32/)? “” : “sudo”
setup_clean [ "pkg", "lib/*.bundle", "*.gem", "doc/rdoc", ".config", 'coverage', "cache"]
@@ -73,11 +75,11 @@
task :install do
sh %{rake package}
- sh %{sudo gem install pkg/#{NAME}-#{VERS} –no-rdoc –no-ri}
+ sh %{#{SUDO} gem install pkg/#{NAME}-#{VERS} –no-rdoc –no-ri}
end
task :uninstall => [:clean] do
- sh %{sudo gem uninstall #{NAME}}
+ sh %{#{SUDO} gem uninstall #{NAME}}
end
desc “run webgen”
@@ -89,7 +91,7 @@
task :doc_rforge do
sh %{rake doc}
sh %{rake doc_webgen}
- sh %{sudo chmod -R 755 doc}
+ sh %{#{SUDO} chmod -R 755 doc} if not PLATFORM =~ /win32/
sh %{scp -r -p doc/site/output/* ezmobius@rubyforge.org:/var/www/gforge-projects/merb}
sh %{scp -r -p doc/rdoc/* ezmobius@rubyforge.org:/var/www/gforge-projects/merb/rdoc}
end
I haven’t really thought about what the consequences of this change are but I did file a bug at the merb Trac in the event they want to fix platform blockers at this point in the dev cycle.
I was reading Cavlyn blog and they mentioned that SitePoint is offering “Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Application” for free in PDF form. Since I already own this in hardcopy I was pleased to be able to get a PDF copy for the laptop so I can stop lugging the hardcopy around (I still need to refer back to it periodically - I’m still not fluent in the Rails development workflows).
It’s a good book at a great price. Only 21 days left though so get moving.
Over the year I’ve had a growing interest in the Ruby programming language. I’ve been attending the local Ruby Meetups, reading The Ruby Way and creating Rails based sites. I’m still swimming in the shallow end but it’s all clicking.
But at the end of the day Ruby is my weekend language. It’s how I unwind, not how I pay the bills.
Apparently I’m not the only one. Google Trends shows that the search term “Ruby” remains steady, and even ticks upwards, over the weekend. Comparable terms, “Perl” and “Python”, exhibit a sharp decline on our days of rest.
Is a picture really worth 1000 words?
I won’t draw any hard conslusions from this - there are too many ways to interpret the graph.
Does this mean that there are more professional Perl and Python developers so when they cut out for the weekend the traffic declines? Perhaps they are all just closest Rubyists who go home and spend their free time writing Rails apps. Perhaps Ruby developers work seven days a week.
Or maybe I’m not the only one who enjoys the Ruby experience.
I am a .NET developer from the Raleigh, NC area who is discovering the joy that is Ruby.