James, I'm not sure what your background is, so please accept my apologies if this answer doesn't
suit your needs.
Ruby programs are run via the `ruby' command, which takes as an argument the name of the file containing
your Ruby program. For example, if you put the following contents into a file named `prog.rb'
puts('Hello, world!')
%w(fee fie foe fum).each do |word|
puts(word+word)
end
puts('And now goodbye')
(not an interesting program, but it serves as an example) and run it from a terminal window (Command Prompt in Windows), you will get output like this.
utopia:tmp vmanis$ ruby prog.rb
Hello, world!
feefee
fiefie
foefoe
fumfum
And now goodbye
I did this on Macintosh OS X (the output is cut&pasted from my Terminal window), but you will get similar results on any system.
Now how did you get the program into the file `prog.rb'? You use a text editor for that purpose. I used Emacs, because I know and love it. Others will get equally good results with Vim, TextMate or TextEdit (on Macs), or one of many other editors. (I don't really recommend Windows NotePad, because (a) it is almost featureless, and (b) it really wants to edit text (.txt) files, but no doubt some people can use it happily. Don't try to use Microsoft Word or OpenOffice as your text editor, these are really not designed for editing programs. Don't post an email saying `What is the best editor for Ruby programmers?', unless you want to get a LOT of email where people argue that THEIR editor is the best and everyone else's is garbage
The irb program, provided as a part of the core Ruby package, provides a great way of experimenting with programs. It also runs in your terminal/Command Prompt window. Suppose you put the following into prog2.rb:
def greet(who)
puts("Hello, #{who}")
end
Now you can try it out by calling the procedure interactively, by running irb.
utopia:tmp vmanis$ irb
irb(main):001:0> load 'prog2.rb'
=> true
irb(main):002:0> greet("Gandalf")
Hello, Gandalf
=> nil
irb(main):003:0>
Not so useful for running a program on its own, but very convenient for trying things out and also for debugging.
FreeRIDE is intended to be an integrated development environment for Ruby, including an editor, debugger, and other tools. I don't know its current status, but a look on its web page, freeride.rubyforge,org, seems to indicate nothing has happened to it since approximately 2006, which suggests it's not something you want to start using. There are a number of supported IDEs for Ruby out there, including plugins for Eclipse and Visual Studio, as well as commercial products (some of which cost money, others might be available at no cost), from companies such as JetBrains or ActiveState.
All of these IDEs sit on top of the actual Ruby package. Their job is to make a programmer's job more productive. Some people really like them, others don't. But you don't need them if you want to get started programming in Ruby.
I hope you found that useful. Please feel free to email me if you have additional questions. -- vincent
···
On 2011-04-10, at 15:39, James Nathan wrote:
does the Free Ride program for Ruby the command program that I need to run and write my program?
James Nathan