[OT] Re: [Rubycocoa-talk] Install failing, at wit's end

[Mark H. <di...@ma...>]

On May 25, 2005, at 12:33 PM, Dave Howell wrote:

>
> On May 25, 2005, at 8:48 AM, Mark Hubbart wrote:
>
>
>> mark@eMac% l /Library/Frameworks
>> ...
>> drwxr-xr-x    6 mark  admin   204 May 25 00:25 Ruby.framework
>> mark@eMac% ruby -v -e'puts RUBY_FRAMEWORK_VERSION'
>> ruby 1.8.2 (2004-12-25) [powerpc-darwin8.0.0]
>> 0.5
>> mark@eMac% ls -la `where ruby`
>> lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel  65 May 25 00:42 /usr/bin/ruby -> / 
>> Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/ruby
>>
>
> [squinting] I think this is telling me that Mark's 'ruby' command  
> lurks in a framework. And that he's running Tiger. K00l.

The "lurking in a framework" is the part I was getting at. After your  
rant about (among other things) self-containedness and drag and drop  
installation, I thought you might find it interesting, since it  
solves those problems in the apple-preferred way.

>>  It's at a point now where I'm eating my own dog food, and it's  
>> almost tasty. :)
>>
>
> [shakes head] I am SO glad there are people out there who think  
> that sort of thing is fun. :)

:) I guess it's fun to make things work properly, though fun isn't  
the reason for this. Frameworks support being embedded in  
applications.  If you try to distribute an application that you  
create that was made with your non-apple ruby installation, it will  
likely not run until the users upgrade their ruby to be the same as  
yours. Which sucks. With a framework, there are fewer worries.

>> Still, Dave, it would be a good idea to get used to the command- 
>> line voodoo.
>>
>
> Aww, c'mon. I've replaced my /usr/bin/ruby with a link to 1.8.2.  
> I've installed TeX, and installed fonts into it (shudder). I've  
> redefined "ls -la" as "dir". I know where my mach kernel is,  my  
> PATH, and my .login file. I'm *used* to command-line voodoo. I just  
> don't *like* it. :) I spend way too much time trying to guess how  
> to make the 'man' command cough up useful answers. [I'd love to  
> spend a little time in a small room with a baseball bat and the guy  
> who thought that making case significant was a good idea.]
>
> There's a Terminal window open most of the time. But the less I  
> have to use it, the happier I am, as a general rule. TextWrangler  
> good, pico bad (do NOT get me started on Emacs or vi. I have not  
> the words for my loathing). Webmin good, apachectl/postfix/rndc  
> bad. (I didn't even know there WAS an rndc until I did 'man named'  
> for this message. Are-en-dee-cee, for pete's sake???) DiskUtility  
> fabulous, diskutil/pdisk/fdisk/bless/whatever frightening.
>
> I hug my perky working (I hope!) RubyCocoa, so that now my Ruby  
> programs can also eschew the command line. smilesmilesmilesmilesmile.
>
> I am often mistaken for a programmer. I'm actually a hard-core  
> applications person. I make my programs work really hard. (I've  
> applescripted Freehand to load PostScript files that I'm writing to  
> the drive as text. Macromedia tech support didn't even know that  
> FreeHand could *be* applescripted. No, not with the UI tools,  
> either.) I program only to make the applications that I need that  
> don't yet exist. (cf. http://grandfenwick.net/dave/applescripts  
> especially Sort&File, iTunes Voice Control, and Chatelaine. Font  
> Undulator isn't listed there, but it's a drag & drop window that  
> takes just about any random font file (Suitcase,  
> LWFN, .pfb, .ttf, .bin) and hammers it into a .dfont or .otf.)
>
> I need to speed up my Mail archiving application, and make a game  
> show display board and a to-do list manager (and I've looked at  
> every existing one I could find, and only TinderBox came close to  
> doing what I needed. But it's not a to do list manager, it's a  
> programming environment. So I'm using Ruby instead).

If you're programming in AppleScript and Ruby, IMHO, you're a  
programmer :) Maybe not by trade, but by habit -- like a lot of  
programmers, myself included.

Anyway, I was just offering another perspective. I learned to like  
the command line, though I started out hating to use it. Once I got  
familiar with man and apropos, learned the terminology, and got  
practice, I realized that it's easier to use it than the gui in many  
cases. However, YMMV, so use what works best for you.

cheers,
Mark