Working with Ruby

[lord_havoc]

I have recently been dabbling in Ruby and I've found I like it quite a bit but being the first actual language I've learned I don't know much about getting these files on the web. How would you run a ruby file in a web browser is basically what I'm asking. I know you can build blogs and photo galleries with it but I have no idea how that works.

[thetestingsite]

You may want to check out a webhost with Ruby/Rails capabilites.

http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/RailsWebHosts

I am trying to get one of my servers to support it, but still running in the test phases right now.

Hope this helps.

[lord_havoc]

Well my host does support it, but I don't have any clue of how to do anything of that magnitude. I probably should have mentioned I am absolutely new to Ruby. I downloaded it yesterday an played around and made a very simple program. Would you directly link to the .rb file? Or is there some sort of way to include the file within a PHP page? Also, are there any good tutorials on using databases with Ruby, I have never used a database before and I'm not getting the hang of those either.

[Twey]

No, you need to use a framework such as Rails. You can run a Ruby file directly as a CGI script, but this is much less useful than using a framework. Ruby is not a Web-oriented language like PHP is, so you really need a framework to provide the necessary functions. You can make do with CGI, but it's ugly and much more difficult than using Rails, and you'll probably end up regretting it.

I suggest you become a lot more familiar with Ruby before you dive into interacting with a complex framework. The same goes for databases, probably, although databases are more-or-less the same no matter what language you use.

[lord_havoc]

I tried to install Rails but it was not working for some reason. What can I do to get practice and get used to Ruby? I read a tutorial that walked through the basics of it but how could I take that knowledge to the next level, how would you make an actual program that does not run in the command prompt?

I hate to be such a nuisance, but again, I know absolutely nothing about programming.

[Twey]

What makes you think that something with a text-based interface isn't an "actual program?"

[lord_havoc]

Ah, true. Let me restate that, it came out wrong. How could I take that knowledge and apply it to making a program that runs with a GUI, (as I said, one that does not run in the command prompt) such as a photo viewer, blog, or game.

[BLiZZaRD]

The first thing you need to do is figure out what you want to do. What type of program do you want to make?

Then use what you already know and start coding. After that find solutions to the errors you get, one by one. Making mistakes in coding is what helps you learn the language.

To install rails on your computer you can follow this pretty simple tutorial

Then you just need guidance:

http://rubylearning.com/

http://poignantguide.net/ruby/

http://learnruby.com/

There is a PDF file "the ruby bible" or something like that which I will find and post here as well, it is rather good reading.

<EDIT>
Found the book, and a quick refernce guide...

the book

The cheat sheet

</EDIT>

[Twey]

How could I take that knowledge and apply it to making a program that runs with a GUI, (as I said, one that does not run in the command prompt) such as a photo viewer, blog, or game.

You need a GUI toolkit and Ruby bindings for it. I suggest FOX and FXRuby for applications that must be very lightweight (fast to run/small program size), and Ruby/Qt otherwise, since Qt has a huge selection of widgets.

[lord_havoc]

Here's another question. Explain what a framework is exactly? What's different about writing ruby code with and without rails? What exactly does rails allow me to do that I couldn't before it was installed?

Okay, so that was actually three, but I just wanted to be clear and get the answer I'm looking for.