Today I decided to go back to one of my previous interests and start to build a Rails application. I already set up my machine in the past, but since then I formatted it at least three times and I scare nothing left from this setup.
So I decided to have a look at the official guide online, you can find good information on http://rubyonrails.org/, a very useful portal with most of the information you need.
If you click on the “get started” icon you will forwarded to the download page which contains the steps to reach a fully working development environment.
First step:
Install Ruby (Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. from Wikipedia.org) which is the core of Rails and makes everything possible. I installed the version Ruby 1.9.3 using the windows installer rubyinstaller-1.9.3-p0.exe.
Second step:
The official guide says that we have to install RubyGem, the standard Ruby package manager, but it was already present on my system after the Ruby installation. Anyway if you want to install it by hand just download it from RubyForge: rubygems-1.8.15.zip. After the installation update the currently gems by running:
gem update --system
and then:
gem install rubygems-update update_rubygems
Third step:
Thru RubyGem you can easily install all the gems via cmdline just running:
gem install package
in that case it should be:
gem install rails
And all the dependencies and the related gems will be installed automagically. RubyGem rocks.
Now everything is in place to start building your new Rails application. I personally suggest RadRails as eclipse plugin (there is also a standalone IDE) as development IDE.
EDIT:
Do not forget to install the DevKit, otherwise you will not be able to start your application, since some gem will be missing. The latest DevKit can be found here: http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/