Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 12:22 PM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: A few newbie questions...

I just downloaded/installed Ruby on Win2K. I really like what I've seen so far.

A few questions.

I see that it comes with its own editor, SciTE. What exactly then is RubyWin?
Can I execute Ruby code from it? Can I write code there as well? What is the
purpose of these different pieces?

Any other tips for getting started with Ruby? I know C and I've done a little
PERL & AWK in the past.

Thanks very much,
Christopher

Christopher J. Meisenzahl CPS, CSTE
Senior Software Testing Consultant
Spherion

> You're really going to like Ruby.  :>
> SciTE is simply a bundled editor that has some Ruby-smarts
> already built in.  I don't care for it personally, but it has
> some nice features (the ruby-smart folding is wonderful).
> RubyWin is an MDI app that lets you quickly test/prototype
> Ruby code.  I use it >a lot<.  You can open up multiple
> windows, hit Ctrl-E to execute the code and get the results.
> Tweak the code, try again, etc.  It's kind of like a GUI
> version of irb.

> If you're getting started, the PickAxe book is definitely the
> best place to start (at least it was for me).  
> An online version of it comes with the Windows ruby install
> (great for online help lookups).  I'd recommend picking up a
> printed copy though.

> -----Original Message-----


> Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 12:22 PM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: A few newbie questions...

> I just downloaded/installed Ruby on Win2K. I really like what
> I've seen so far.

> A few questions.

> I see that it comes with its own editor, SciTE. What exactly
> then is RubyWin?
> Can I execute Ruby code from it? Can I write code there as
> well? What is the
> purpose of these different pieces?

> Any other tips for getting started with Ruby? I know C and
> I've done a little
> PERL & AWK in the past.

> Thanks very much,
> Christopher

> Christopher J. Meisenzahl CPS, CSTE
> Senior Software Testing Consultant
> Spherion

Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 12:34 PM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: RE: A few newbie questions...

Patrick,

Very cool, thanks!

One thing though, if I right-click and choose Eval Buffer it works fine. But if
I press CTRL + E it doesn't execute my code, and just prints "ENQ". Any ideas?
I'm stumped, couldn't find it in the docs yet either.

Thanks very much again for taking the time to reply, very kind of you!

Christopher J. Meisenzahl CPS, CSTE
Senior Software Testing Consultant
Spherion

> -----Original Message-----

> Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 1:25 PM
> To: ruby-talk
> Subject: RE: A few newbie questions...

> You're really going to like Ruby.  :>
> SciTE is simply a bundled editor that has some Ruby-smarts
> already built in.  I don't care for it personally, but it has
> some nice features (the ruby-smart folding is wonderful).
> RubyWin is an MDI app that lets you quickly test/prototype
> Ruby code.  I use it >a lot<.  You can open up multiple
> windows, hit Ctrl-E to execute the code and get the results.
> Tweak the code, try again, etc.  It's kind of like a GUI
> version of irb.

> If you're getting started, the PickAxe book is definitely the
> best place to start (at least it was for me).  
> An online version of it comes with the Windows ruby install
> (great for online help lookups).  I'd recommend picking up a
> printed copy though.

> -----Original Message-----


> Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 12:22 PM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: A few newbie questions...

> I just downloaded/installed Ruby on Win2K. I really like what
> I've seen so far.

> A few questions.

> I see that it comes with its own editor, SciTE. What exactly
> then is RubyWin?
> Can I execute Ruby code from it? Can I write code there as
> well? What is the
> purpose of these different pieces?

> Any other tips for getting started with Ruby? I know C and
> I've done a little
> PERL & AWK in the past.

> Thanks very much,
> Christopher

> Christopher J. Meisenzahl CPS, CSTE
> Senior Software Testing Consultant
> Spherion

> Hmm.. it works fine for me ..... but, if
> you hit Ctrl-Shift-E, then it will display ENQ and from that
> point on, it won't ever work until you quit RubyWin.  
> Definite bug. Plain 'ol Ctrl-e works fine though.

> -----Original Message-----


> Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 12:34 PM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: RE: A few newbie questions...

> Patrick,

> Very cool, thanks!

> One thing though, if I right-click and choose Eval Buffer it
> works fine. But if
> I press CTRL + E it doesn't execute my code, and just prints
> "ENQ". Any ideas?
> I'm stumped, couldn't find it in the docs yet either.

> Thanks very much again for taking the time to reply, very kind of you!

> Christopher J. Meisenzahl CPS, CSTE
> Senior Software Testing Consultant
> Spherion

> > -----Original Message-----

> > Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 1:25 PM
> > To: ruby-talk
> > Subject: RE: A few newbie questions...

> > You're really going to like Ruby.  :>
> > SciTE is simply a bundled editor that has some Ruby-smarts
> > already built in.  I don't care for it personally, but it has
> > some nice features (the ruby-smart folding is wonderful).
> > RubyWin is an MDI app that lets you quickly test/prototype
> > Ruby code.  I use it >a lot<.  You can open up multiple
> > windows, hit Ctrl-E to execute the code and get the results.
> > Tweak the code, try again, etc.  It's kind of like a GUI
> > version of irb.

> > If you're getting started, the PickAxe book is definitely the
> > best place to start (at least it was for me).  
> > An online version of it comes with the Windows ruby install
> > (great for online help lookups).  I'd recommend picking up a
> > printed copy though.

> > -----Original Message-----


> > Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 12:22 PM
> > To: ruby-talk ML
> > Subject: A few newbie questions...

> > I just downloaded/installed Ruby on Win2K. I really like what
> > I've seen so far.

> > A few questions.

> > I see that it comes with its own editor, SciTE. What exactly
> > then is RubyWin?
> > Can I execute Ruby code from it? Can I write code there as
> > well? What is the
> > purpose of these different pieces?

> > Any other tips for getting started with Ruby? I know C and
> > I've done a little
> > PERL & AWK in the past.

> > Thanks very much,
> > Christopher

> > Christopher J. Meisenzahl CPS, CSTE
> > Senior Software Testing Consultant
> > Spherion

> > If you're getting started, the PickAxe book is definitely the
> > best place to start (at least it was for me).

> Just to clarify (for Christopher): The "PickAxe Book" that people refer
> to now and again is "Programming Ruby", by Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt.
> Patrick is correct that this is a must-have for beginning Ruby
> programmers (and non-beginners, for that matter ;)

> > > If you're getting started, the PickAxe book is definitely the
> > > best place to start (at least it was for me).

> > Just to clarify (for Christopher): The "PickAxe Book" that people refer
> > to now and again is "Programming Ruby", by Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt.
> > Patrick is correct that this is a must-have for beginning Ruby
> > programmers (and non-beginners, for that matter ;)

> Speaking of the "PickAxe Book", how much is missing
> from the on-line version?  (I've noticed that a lot
> of chapter 18 is not there.)

> * Subject: Re: A few newbie questions...:

> > > If you're getting started, the PickAxe book is definitely the
> > > best place to start (at least it was for me).

> > Just to clarify (for Christopher): The "PickAxe Book" that people refer
> > to now and again is "Programming Ruby", by Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt.
> > Patrick is correct that this is a must-have for beginning Ruby
> > programmers (and non-beginners, for that matter ;)

> Speaking of the "PickAxe Book", how much is missing
> from the on-line version?  (I've noticed that a lot
> of chapter 18 is not there.)

? I hadn't noticed any major omissions.

It's not crippleware, in other words.

I *have* noticed some annoying anti-features: No page
numbers, much less links to them; and even more
importantly, the figures seem to be missing.

But as for huge chunks of text missing: I wasn't aware
of any, but I'll go look.

I'll be curious about what Dave says.

Hal

> ? I hadn't noticed any major omissions.

> It's not crippleware, in other words.

> I *have* noticed some annoying anti-features: No page
> numbers, much less links to them; and even more
> importantly, the figures seem to be missing.

> But as for huge chunks of text missing: I wasn't aware
> of any, but I'll go look.

> I'll be curious about what Dave says.

> Hal

> In defence of Dave/Andy/OnlinePickAxe, I have learned Ruby from the ground
> up using Matz's Ruby in a Nutshell (book), OnlinePickAxe, and ri
> (astoundingly beautiful command-line reference into OnlinePickAxe
> material).  Like everyone else, I notice that OnlinePickAxe/ri "suffers"
> from not being able to trace down page references or view figures, but
> this is just not a big deal.  I'm not sure why, but it's just not a big
> deal.  I can always find the information I need, and that's not because
> I'm very experienced in Ruby - I'm not.

> Given a free language with free third-party documentation, we're doing
> very well indeed.

> Cheers,
> Gavin

> About the figures, did someone mention modifying the JPEGs from the free
> german translation some time back? [
> http://www.*-*-*.com/ ]
> Most of these are directly usable, and in the remainders the text can be
> changed in any paint program (though the quality does suffer somewhat),
> and I think you don't have to go about changing all the XML documents.
> (Some clever changes to convert.xsl and an extra XML document if you
> want the figure captions should suffice, I think.) It is a bit of a
> quick hack, and I'd like to have input from Jrgen Katins, before I give
> out any modified files.

> The last of these three I am planning to add to the norwegian
> translation, and I see that Katins have done so also. However, here I
> see less chance of avoiding going into the XML. Since Dave and Andy use
> the{*filter*}as source to generate the XML, I'm not sure how to do this
> without the solution being fragile.

>Given a free language with free third-party documentation, we're doing
>very well indeed.

>Cheers,
>Gavin