Windows 7 64-bit install

[Bob P.]

Is there any advantage to a "manual" installation versus RubyInstaller
on Windows 7 64-bit? Are they mutually exclusive?

If I do a "manual" install, what is the usual $TOPDIR in Windows 7?

I'm a retired software engineer (nearly 50 years experience) so am not
afraid to do command line things, etc. I'm a little new to Windows,
having used mostly Linux for the past 10 years and many other OSs before
that.

This is not a production environment. This is for my own amusement. Yes,
I enjoy programming just for fun in my retirement. I've played a bit
with Ruby on Linux. But I'm getting more used to Windows and want to
play with it here.

--Bob

 

[Phillip Gawlowski]

Is there any advantage to a "manual" installation versus RubyInstaller
on Windows 7 64-bit? Are they mutually exclusive?

Unless you want to set the path and the file associations by hand, you
can use the RubyInstaller just fine. Given your background, I feel
silly pointing out that "64 bit" means the CPU. Windows is fully
capable of running 32 bit applications on a 64 bit OS (it's 16 bit
applications that won't work, but they won't work on any other OS,
too; it's a hardware 'limitation').

If I do a "manual" install, what is the usual $TOPDIR in Windows 7?

Whatever suits you best. C:\Ruby is the canonical installation
directory for the RubyInstaller.

I'm a retired software engineer (nearly 50 years experience) so am not
afraid to do command line things, etc. I'm a little new to Windows,
having used mostly Linux for the past 10 years and many other OSs before
that.

This is not a production environment. This is for my own amusement. Yes,
I enjoy programming just for fun in my retirement. I've played a bit
with Ruby on Linux. But I'm getting more used to Windows and want to
play with it here.

You'll get a rather rough experience with Ruby on Windows, since the
Ruby community is quite *NIX centric. That said, the RubyInstaller's
DevKit takes away a *lot* of the hurt, since it provides a compiler
toolchain (on demand, even!) similar to *NIX.

Given that you are new to Windows, I'd simply use the RubyInstaller.
It sets everything that needs to be set, and you are good to go from
the command line. BTW: If you are used to *NIX-like command lines, use
PowerShell. It follows many of the usual *NIX conventions, and has
aliases corresponding to common *NIX tools (ls, grep, more, less). I
have no idea if it is included in whatever edition of Windows 7 you
are using, but it's available here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd742419.aspx

--
Phillip Gawlowski

Though the folk I have met,
(Ah, how soon!) they forget
When I've moved on to some other place,
There may be one or two,
When I've played and passed through,
Who'll remember my song or my face.

 

[Bob P.]

Phillip Gawlowski wrote in post #984182:

Unless you want to set the path and the file associations by hand, you
can use the RubyInstaller just fine. Given your background, I feel
silly pointing out that "64 bit" means the CPU. Windows is fully
capable of running 32 bit applications on a 64 bit OS (it's 16 bit
applications that won't work, but they won't work on any other OS,
too; it's a hardware 'limitation').

Yes, I knew that Windows would run 32-bit applications, but I specified
that I'm running 64-bit Windows 7 in case there are both a 32-bit and
64-bit version of Ruby's various files, etc. that I needed to know
about. I have run into several such problems running 64-bit Linux.

Whatever suits you best. C:\Ruby is the canonical installation
directory for the RubyInstaller.


You'll get a rather rough experience with Ruby on Windows, since the
Ruby community is quite *NIX centric. That said, the RubyInstaller's
DevKit takes away a *lot* of the hurt, since it provides a compiler
toolchain (on demand, even!) similar to *NIX.

Given that you are new to Windows, I'd simply use the RubyInstaller.
It sets everything that needs to be set, and you are good to go from
the command line. BTW: If you are used to *NIX-like command lines, use
PowerShell. It follows many of the usual *NIX conventions, and has
aliases corresponding to common *NIX tools (ls, grep, more, less). I
have no idea if it is included in whatever edition of Windows 7 you
are using, but it's available here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd742419.aspx

Thank you very much, Phillip. This is exactly the advice I was looking
for.

--Bob

 

[Phillip Gawlowski]

Yes, I knew that Windows would run 32-bit applications, but I specified
that I'm running 64-bit Windows 7 in case there are both a 32-bit and
64-bit version of Ruby's various files, etc. that I needed to know
about. I have run into several such problems running 64-bit Linux.

Not that I am aware of. IIRC, Ruby, at least on Windows, is strictly
32 bit. If all else fails, you can use RVM[0] to manage multiple
versions of Ruby (with their own RubyGem libraries).

You can also sidestep all this and use JRuby, which should run
everywhere where a Java VM runs.

In any case, RubyGems should catch architecture specifics like this,
and not offer an incompatible install.

Thank you very much, Phillip. This is exactly the advice I was looking
for.

Always happy to help.

[0] http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/

--
Phillip Gawlowski

Though the folk I have met,
(Ah, how soon!) they forget
When I've moved on to some other place,
There may be one or two,
When I've played and passed through,
Who'll remember my song or my face.

 

[Charles Oliver Nutter]

Not that I am aware of. IIRC, Ruby, at least on Windows, is strictly
32 bit. If all else fails, you can use RVM[0] to manage multiple
versions of Ruby (with their own RubyGem libraries).

You can also sidestep all this and use JRuby, which should run
everywhere where a Java VM runs.

FYI, there are both 32 and 64-bit JVM installs for Windows, and JRuby
will run fine out of the box on either. Regardless of 32 or 64-bit,
JRuby always has 64-bit Fixnum and Float, so the main thing you get
from a 64-bit JVM is a larger addressable memory space (anyone out
there with 50GB Ruby applications?)

- Charlie