Do I need to upgrade to the latest version of Ruby

[Fily Salas]

Hi,

I have been using the Ruby version that came with Mac OSX (1.8.?) and
so far no problems but I was wondering if it would be better to install
the latest version of Ruby.

1- Does it make sense to upgrade to the latest version of Ruby?

2- Is there a big difference between 1.8 and 1.9?

3- Will code written in 1.8 works in 1.9?

4- Can someone show me how to install the newsiest version?

5- Do I need to uninstall 1.8 first?

6- Why is that I cannot see the Ruby installation anywhere in my Mac,
where is Ruby installed?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Ian M. Asaff]

I think using rvm is the best way to experiment with various versions of ru=
by:

http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/

 

[Fily Salas]

Thank you for your reply

Excuse my ignorance but how RVM works?

 

[Robert Klemme]

I have been using the Ruby version that came with Mac OSX =A0(1.8.?) and
so far no problems but I was wondering if it would be better to install
the latest version of Ruby.

1- Does it make sense to upgrade to the latest version of Ruby?
Yes.

2- Is there a big difference between 1.8 and 1.9?

Yes, especially under the hood. But language changes aren't so
dramatic IMHO. Typically stdlib functionality was extended so old
code should run OK most of the time.

3- Will code written in 1.8 works in 1.9?

Actually much code will work unchanged but you need to test this of course.

4- Can someone show me how to install the newsiest version?

I typically do

$ ./configure --prefix=3D/usr/local --program-suffix=3D19
$ make
$ make install

Then I can start ruby19 and irb19, ri19 and it won't interfere with
old versions.

Not sure how you would go about this on a Mac though.

5- Do I need to uninstall 1.8 first?
No.

6- Why is that I cannot see the Ruby installation anywhere in my Mac,
where is Ruby installed?

Sorry, no Mac knowledge here.

Cheers

robert

--=20
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/

 

[Chris Hulan]

6- Why is that I cannot see the Ruby installation anywhere in my Mac,
where is Ruby installed?

open a terminal (found in utilities), type 'which ruby' at the
command prompt and it should say where ruby is
'ruby -v' will display the version

If you've been using it, I assume via some editor/IDE, the properties/
settings may have an entry displaying which ruby it is using

cheers

 

[Fily Salas]

Thank you all for your help!

 

[Stu]

use rvm and leave the system ruby alone. rvm is essentially a sandbox
for installing and running different rubies with the added bonus of
gemsets. The other option is to use mac ports to install the various
ruby implementations and run

port -v install ruby19

The only benefit to using your package manager to install them is to
have them available system wide and to automate dependencies and
updates which rvm leaves the user to deal with by hand.

Of course you can do it both ways. But one thing I know for sure. You
never want to remove system installed programs. Usually because some
system installed bit may depend on it. Even in this case where ruby
and rails are installed by apple for marketing to developers and
create appeal for their product amongst web developers.Though I'm sure
we all know that removing rails wont cause OSX to come tumbling down
keeping the original ruby may save you on less headache or reinstall
one day. Though I highly doubt removing the system ruby would really
do any real harm. Just saying.

~

 

[Josh Cheek]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

I have been using the Ruby version that came with Mac OSX (1.8.?) and
so far no problems but I was wondering if it would be better to install
the latest version of Ruby.

You might like to get an account at ruby-versions.net, which will give you
an account you can ssh into and play with different versions of Ruby all the
way back to 1.0

http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/212951

I don't find that I use it often, but it's a nice way to play around with
the language, without needing to know how to set all that stuff up yourself.

4- Can someone show me how to install the newsiest version?

Personally, I am pretty happy with RVM
http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/rvm/install/

5- Do I need to uninstall 1.8 first?

Don't do this, you could break anything that depends on it being there.

6- Why is that I cannot see the Ruby installation anywhere in my Mac,
where is Ruby installed?

At your terminal type: whereis ruby

This will look in some common locations that binaries are installed to, it
will return your system Ruby. On mine (Snow Leopard) it says /usr/bin/ruby

Also useful is: which ruby

This returns the first match it finds at the directories specified in your
$PATH variable (you can see what this looks like by doing: echo "$PATH"),
which defines locations to look for binaries when you execute them in the
terminal.

I typically do

$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --program-suffix=19
$ make
$ make install

Then I can start ruby19 and irb19, ri19 and it won't interfere with
old versions.

Not sure how you would go about this on a Mac though.

You could just put this into a local dir like ~/bin (and make an alias, or
not use a suffix) then make sure it's earlier in your $PATH so you get to
use your Ruby, but other programs that depend on the system Ruby aren't
altered. This is how I dealt with it at school, where I couldn't save
outside my home directory, and it's basically what RVM is doing when you
install it locally, anyway.

 

[Fily Salas]

Thank you all very much!