# Few questions from a newbye **URL:** \ **Category:** ruby-talk\ **Created:** [7 August 2006 10:15 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/few-questions-from-a-newbye/29705 "2006-08-07T10:15:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bzamfir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@bzamfir](https://rubytalk.org/u/bzamfir)\ **Post date:** [7 August 2006 10:15 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/few-questions-from-a-newbye/29705/1 "2006-08-07T10:15:05Z")
Hi, I'm an experienced developer and I just fond out about Ruby. Being a cross platform and allowing (with the help of Ruby2exe) to generate exe applications, it seems a solution worthing to consider for development. However, I'd like to ask some questions: 1. Currently my main development platform is Windows, so is there any free yet powerful IDE for Ruby on Windows, with intelisense (auto-complete), debugger, etc - anything you'd expect from a good IDE? If not on Windows, is there any like that on other platforms? 2. Is there any visual designer for ruby (I mean to build user interface visually, like in VB, Deplhi, etc)? Is it integrated with the IDE? 2.bis. As I understood there are several libraries for building GUI with Ruby, which one is the most portable one across as many platforms as possible, as well as allowing to develop applications with a modern look (I mean to have as many visual controls as possible - tables, tabs, splitters, etc). Is there any visual designer for that? 3. I saw almost all Ruby tutorials uses MySql as database engine. I used it a lot woth web applications, but I'm wondering, if I need to use it with a ruly application, is tere any way to embed it into the setup kit and install automatically (silent) with ruby? Is there any tool which help accomplishing this? 4. How is Ruby working with other databases? Does it have native capabilities to work with DB's like Access (MDB) and other database for PC (XLS file, CSV, etc). Or is it using ODBC, OleDB or anything like that? 5. If using ODBC/OleDB, is thsi supported on other platforms (for example, a ruby application running on a linux or Mac, to access a pc database (MDB, for example) over a network, from a PC server? 6. is there any Ruby implementation (including a GUI library) for Pocker PC? Thank you for all your answers. Cordially yours, Bogdan Zamfir ---
**Author:** ![Tassilo\_Horn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Tassilo\_Horn](https://rubytalk.org/u/Tassilo_Horn)\ **Post date:** [7 August 2006 11:20 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/few-questions-from-a-newbye/29705/2 "2006-08-07T11:20:12Z")
"bzamfir@gmail.com" \ writes: Hi, > 1. Currently my main development platform is Windows, so is there any > free yet powerful IDE for Ruby on Windows, with intelisense > (auto-complete), debugger, etc - anything you'd expect from a good > IDE? I use GNU Emacs with ruby-mode.el, ruby-electric.el (both included in the usual Ruby distribution) and ri-emacs [1]. > 2.bis. As I understood there are several libraries for building GUI > with Ruby, which one is the most portable one across as many platforms > as possible, as well as allowing to develop applications with a modern > look (I mean to have as many visual controls as possible - tables, > tabs, splitters, etc). Is there any visual designer for that? Tk is included in the usual Ruby distribution, but it doesn't look too good. I played a bit with Qt4 and it's ruby bindings [2] and it looks promising. Qt offers a good GUI builder and it should be possible to use widgets designed with it from ruby. There's a book [3] available, too. There are also bindings for GTK [4]. Bye, Tassilo Footnotes: [1] [http://rubyforge.org/projects/ri-emacs/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/ri-emacs/) [2] [http://rubyforge.org/projects/korundum](http://rubyforge.org/projects/korundum) [3] [http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/ctrubyqt/index.html](http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/ctrubyqt/index.html) [4] [http://ruby-gnome2.sourceforge.jp/](http://ruby-gnome2.sourceforge.jp/) > **···** > > -- > "Wenn Windows die Lösung ist, kann ich dann bitte das Problem zurück > haben?" ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Farmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Ryan\_Farmer](https://rubytalk.org/u/Ryan_Farmer)\ **Post date:** [3 March 2007 10:24 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/few-questions-from-a-newbye/29705/3 "2007-03-03T10:24:19Z")
I have been working on a project utilizing Ruby as a front-end for a MySQL database and have been searching for a method to embed MySQL into Ruby. Sadly, I have not yet found one. I understand from the MySQL documentation that libraries exist from MySQL for embedding the server into another application. If anyone knows anything about using this functionality in conjunction with Ruby, that would be much appreciated. RAF > **···** > > -- > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Boese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Martin\_Boese](https://rubytalk.org/u/Martin_Boese)\ **Post date:** [3 March 2007 12:43 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/few-questions-from-a-newbye/29705/4 "2007-03-03T12:43:04Z")
You want to access MySQL from your ruby program?! [http://ruby-dbi.rubyforge.org/](http://ruby-dbi.rubyforge.org/) ...or more high level: [http://ar.rubyonrails.com/](http://ar.rubyonrails.com/) martin > **···** > > On Saturday 03 March 2007 10:24, Ryan Farmer wrote: > > > I have been working on a project utilizing Ruby as a front-end for a > > MySQL database and have been searching for a method to embed MySQL into > > Ruby. Sadly, I have not yet found one. > > > > I understand from the MySQL documentation that libraries exist from > > MySQL for embedding the server into another application. If anyone knows > > anything about using this functionality in conjunction with Ruby, that > > would be much appreciated. > > > > RAF ---
**Author:** ![David\_Vallner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb9ed0/32.png) [@David\_Vallner](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Vallner)\ **Post date:** [3 March 2007 17:50 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/few-questions-from-a-newbye/29705/5 "2007-03-03T17:50:52Z")
Martin Boese wrote: > You want to access MySQL from your ruby program?! > > [http://ruby-dbi.rubyforge.org/](http://ruby-dbi.rubyforge.org/) > > ...or more high level: > [http://ar.rubyonrails.com/](http://ar.rubyonrails.com/) Neither of which is relevant to the OP's problem. David Vallner