Learning Rails 3

Chapter 1. Starting Up Ruby on Rails

Before you can use Rails, you have to install it. Even if it’s already installed on your computer, you may need to consider upgrading it. In this chapter, we’ll take a look at some ways of installing Ruby, Rails, and the supporting infrastructure. Please feel very welcome to jump to whatever pieces of this section interest you and skip past those that don’t. Once the software is working, we’ll generate the basic Rails application, which will at least let you know if Rails is working. However you decide to set up Rails, in the end you’re going to have a structure like that shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1. The many components of a Rails installation

Note

All of these options are free. You don’t need to spend any money to use Rails, unless maybe you feel like buying a nice text editor.

Figure 1-2. The Rails welcome page

If You Run Windows, You’re Lucky

Windows users (at last) can get a basic installation of Rails and supporting tools—everything you need to use this book—far more easily than anyone else. EngineYard’s Rails Installer, which you can get at http://railsinstaller.org/ , provides all the key components in a one-click installation. Visit the site, download the installer, and watch the video; after that, you should be ready to move ahead to Starting ...