ruby 1.8.1 windows installer

[KONTRA Gergely]

Hi!

Shall I expect an msvc ruby installer for ruby 1.8.1?

thx
Gergo

 

[Andrew Hunt]

Hi!

Shall I expect an msvc ruby installer for ruby 1.8.1?

Hi all!

Yes, I am planning on getting that out shortly. Our new books were
slashdotted a week or so ago, and things have been very busy around the
old Pragmatic offices!

I'll try to get the next release out sometime over the next week or so.

thanks.

/\ndy

 

[Joel VanderWerf]

Hi all!

Yes, I am planning on getting that out shortly. Our new books were
slashdotted a week or so ago, and things have been very busy around the
old Pragmatic offices!

I'll try to get the next release out sometime over the next week or so.

Apologies if this has been discussed before, but is there a way of
offloading some of the effort to the community? What is required to
build the installer? Certainly, the msvc project files for ruby itself
and for the extensions, and the nullsoft (IIRC) installer script. Could
these be maintained as a {ruby,source}forge project?

 

[Andrew Hunt]

Apologies if this has been discussed before, but is there a way of
offloading some of the effort to the community?

That *is* my intent, but that also takes time to set up. I'll try to
lay the ground work after this next release such that someone other than
me can push the button for future releases

I've had a few volunteers in the past (and I kept your names, guys!
I'll be coming after you!) If anyone else is interested in helping out
and contributing, please drop me an e-mail.

thanks!

/\ndy

 

[Alan Davies]

Hi all!

Yes, I am planning on getting that out shortly. Our new books were
slashdotted a week or so ago, and things have been very busy around the
old Pragmatic offices!

I'll try to get the next release out sometime over the next week or so.

thanks.

/\ndy

Is there any plan to update the pickaxe book in the future? The 1.6.1
version is a bit out of date now (but still very handy!)

Thanks,
Alan.

 

[Phil Tomson]

Is there any plan to update the pickaxe book in the future? The 1.6.1
version is a bit out of date now (but still very handy!)

The computer book industry has had three years of declining revenue now.
Perhaps the improving economy in 2004 will help, but it seems that most
of the publishers are still being very conservative about new projects.
Since the first edition of the Pickaxe book didn't exactly fly off the
shelves (that's my understanding anyway) you can imagine that AW would
be reluctant.

Perhaps a letter writing campaign to Addison-Wesley is in order?

Phil

 

[Gavin Sinclair]

The computer book industry has had three years of declining revenue now.
Perhaps the improving economy in 2004 will help, but it seems that most
of the publishers are still being very conservative about new projects.
Since the first edition of the Pickaxe book didn't exactly fly off the
shelves (that's my understanding anyway) you can imagine that AW would
be reluctant.

Perhaps a letter writing campaign to Addison-Wesley is in order?

I doubt the few hundred letters they might receive would make much
difference. They are surely capable of measuring the market. Ruby
advocacy in a general sense (e.g. killer apps/websites) would help
their measurements to be more positive, and would cause any letters
they do receive to be more "interesting".

Cheers,
Gavin

P.S. The declining revenue is not surprising, or a bad thing,
considering the amount of dross out there. Positive spin: after the
shake-out, people are more likely to spend their money on *good*
books. Maybe.

P.P.S. The momentum in the mailing list (new users) and the maturity
of 1.8 are genuinely positive indicators that must eventually have an
effect in the market.

 

[Phil Tomson]

I doubt the few hundred letters they might receive would make much
difference.

Quite true. The letters would probably have to contain checks in for
advance payment for the 2nd edition pickaxe before they would take notice.
And they would want to see a bunch of them.

They are surely capable of measuring the market. Ruby
advocacy in a general sense (e.g. killer apps/websites) would help
their measurements to be more positive, and would cause any letters
they do receive to be more "interesting".




P.S. The declining revenue is not surprising, or a bad thing,
considering the amount of dross out there. Positive spin: after the
shake-out, people are more likely to spend their money on *good*
books. Maybe.

We can only hope.

P.P.S. The momentum in the mailing list (new users) and the maturity
of 1.8 are genuinely positive indicators that must eventually have an
effect in the market.

we do seem to be seeing another wave of new names on the list these days.
That's a good thing.

Phil

 

[Alan Davies]

Since the first edition of the Pickaxe book didn't exactly fly off the

shelves (that's my understanding anyway) you can imagine that AW would

Maybe if you don't make the new version available online, then more
people will buy it? I for one can hold my hand up in shame and say that
I haven't bought the existing one, because the ruby installer comes with
an electronic version of it.

Alan.

 

[Mauricio Fernández]

Maybe if you don't make the new version available online, then more
people will buy it? I for one can hold my hand up in shame and say that
I haven't bought the existing one, because the ruby installer comes with
an electronic version of it.

OTOH...
I bought it *thanks* to the web version; had it not existed I'd probably
have ended up using Python I don't know if the the decision to
distribute the Pickaxe for free made sense economically (probably not),
but it certainly has done a lot for the expansion of Ruby, so we cannot
but thank the authors.

--
_ _
| |__ __ _| |_ ___ _ __ ___ __ _ _ __
| '_ \ / _` | __/ __| '_ ` _ \ / _` | '_ \
| |_) | (_| | |_\__ \ | | | | | (_| | | | |
|_.__/ \__,_|\__|___/_| |_| |_|\__,_|_| |_|
Running Debian GNU/Linux Sid (unstable)
batsman dot geo at yahoo dot com

Absolutely nothing should be concluded from these figures except that
no conclusion can be drawn from them.
-- Joseph L. Brothers, Linux/PowerPC Project)

 

[Ara.T.Howard]

Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 00:41:19 +0900
From: Mauricio Fernández <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby
Subject: Re: ruby 1.8.1 windows installer



OTOH...
I bought it *thanks* to the web version; had it not existed I'd probably
have ended up using Python I don't know if the the decision to
distribute the Pickaxe for free made sense economically (probably not),
but it certainly has done a lot for the expansion of Ruby, so we cannot
but thank the authors.

ditto. i bought two copies and gave them away - to spread the word. both
copies have moved on to co-workers, and the generated interest lead me to
teach a little ruby 101 class to more of them. i have never done that with
any other books/languages and the graciousness of the pickaxe authors no doubt
contributed to that reaction in me.

i guess kindness is contagious.

-a
--

ATTN: please update your address books with address below!

===============================================================================
| EMAIL :: Ara [dot] T [dot] Howard [at] noaa [dot] gov
| PHONE :: 303.497.6469
| ADDRESS :: E/GC2 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305-3328
| STP :: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/
| NGDC :: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/
| NESDIS :: http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/
| NOAA :: http://www.noaa.gov/
| US DOC :: http://www.commerce.gov/
|
| The difference between art and science is that science is what we
| understand well enough to explain to a computer.
| Art is everything else.
| -- Donald Knuth, "Discover"
|
| /bin/sh -c 'for l in ruby perl;do $l -e "print \"\x3a\x2d\x29\x0a\"";done'
===============================================================================

 

[Hez R]

I was just as guilty of using the online ver, but I ran across the
pickaxe book sitting in a local book store and since it had been so
indespensable I couldn't but buy it.

If you've found it so usefull support the authors! Especially if you
want a version for 1.8, if we all just send them cheques for it before
its printed can they but create it?

Regards,
Hez

 

[Dave Thomas]

If you've found it so usefull support the authors!

Here, here!! )

Especially if you want a version for 1.8, if we all just send them
cheques for it before its printed can they but create it?

I've got the class and module library section all updated, but I'm
struggling knowing what to do with the standard library. In 1.8 it's
now enormous, and documenting it all at the same level of detail as the
1.6 book does would be a gigantic task. Would people be upset if any
new version of the book had a more synoptic overview of the library
(things like yaml, opensll, etc)

Cheers

Dave

 

[Gavin Sinclair]

OTOH...
I bought it *thanks* to the web version; had it not existed I'd probably
have ended up using Python I don't know if the the decision to
distribute the Pickaxe for free made sense economically (probably not),
but it certainly has done a lot for the expansion of Ruby, so we cannot
but thank the authors.

On the economic question, I'd say it can be argued pretty well either
way. You wouldn't have bought the book without seeing it online, and
I'm sure that goes for many others.

Bruck Eckel thinks giving his book(s) away online helps generate more
sales. There will always be little factors that can swing it each
way.

Cheers,
Gavin

 

[Gavin Sinclair]

I've got the class and module library section all updated, but I'm
struggling knowing what to do with the standard library. In 1.8 it's
now enormous, and documenting it all at the same level of detail as the
1.6 book does would be a gigantic task. Would people be upset if any
new version of the book had a more synoptic overview of the library
(things like yaml, opensll, etc)

I think that's a sensible approach for you. The 1.6 standard library
contained "things you expect a scripting language to have" (network,
CGI, date manipulation, file manipulation, some maths, some ADTs,
etc.), and it made sense to document them rigorously.

In 1.8, however, several formerly-third-party libraries (rexml,
testunit, yaml, soap4r, etc.) have been included simply for ease of
distribution. Everyone welcomes them, but IMO they do not form such a
core part of Ruby as, say "singleton". Being more like third-party
libraries, the onus still falls on the author (and helpers) to
document them.

As an author on the language, you should certainly make users aware of
the batteries that are included, but you shouldn't need to "do it
all".

Cheers,
Gavin

 

[Dave Brown]

: On Jan 14, 2004, at 12:27, Hez R wrote:
: > If you've found it so usefull support the authors!
:
: Here, here!! )
:
: > Especially if you want a version for 1.8, if we all just send them
: > cheques for it before its printed can they but create it?
:
: I've got the class and module library section all updated, but I'm
: struggling knowing what to do with the standard library. In 1.8 it's
: now enormous, and documenting it all at the same level of detail as the
: 1.6 book does would be a gigantic task. Would people be upset if any
: new version of the book had a more synoptic overview of the library
: (things like yaml, opensll, etc)

Oh er, well, see...

The library reference is the most useful thing about the Pickaxe! At
least, I read the book once, and now it's considerably more well-thumbed
towards the end. Ruby's syntax is so simple that you don't have to
spend much time discussing it, so you can get straight to the library.

Perhaps another volume which is entirely standard-library reference?

--Dave

 

[Zachary P. Landau]

--azLHFNyN32YCQGCU
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

=20
I've got the class and module library section all updated, but I'm=20
struggling knowing what to do with the standard library. In 1.8 it's=20
now enormous, and documenting it all at the same level of detail as the= =20
1.6 book does would be a gigantic task. Would people be upset if any=20
new version of the book had a more synoptic overview of the library=20
(things like yaml, opensll, etc)

I almost never reference the library section of the Pickaxe book. It was
nice when I was first learning Ruby because I could flip through it to
get an idea of what was included. Now that I know the language, I almost
exclusively use ri for library stuff. After that, I check the ruby-talk
archives or just plain google.

It'd probably be good to update the current library reference with
changes from 1.8. Then at the end you could mention the new libraries
and briefly what they do.

--
Zachary P. Landau <[email protected]>
GPG: gpg --recv-key 0x24E5AD99 | http://kapheine.hypa.net/kapheine.asc

--azLHFNyN32YCQGCU
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
Content-Disposition: inline

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFABiCdCwWyMCTlrZkRApQqAJ9tFSNWDrauoAOcLd9wKa7/FFa0tQCePn5i
IRRu0OjIW1r1dF/MCiiXWs8=
=dgyO
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--azLHFNyN32YCQGCU--

 

[Robert]

Here, here!! )



I've got the class and module library section all updated, but I'm
struggling knowing what to do with the standard library. In 1.8 it's now
enormous, and documenting it all at the same level of detail as the 1.6
book does would be a gigantic task. Would people be upset if any new
version of the book had a more synoptic overview of the library (things
like yaml, opensll, etc)

Cheers

Dave

It would be nice if it were only printed (nothing fancy) with most of
the money going to the authors and some only going to cover the cost of
the printing and binding.

 

[Robert]

Here, here!! )



I've got the class and module library section all updated, but I'm
struggling knowing what to do with the standard library. In 1.8 it's now
enormous, and documenting it all at the same level of detail as the 1.6
book does would be a gigantic task. Would people be upset if any new
version of the book had a more synoptic overview of the library (things
like yaml, opensll, etc)

Cheers

Dave

It would be nice if it were only printed (nothing fancy) with most of
the money going to the authors and some only going to cover the cost of
the printing and binding.

 

[Tim Sutherland]

I almost never reference the library section of the Pickaxe book. It was
nice when I was first learning Ruby because I could flip through it to
get an idea of what was included. Now that I know the language, I almost
exclusively use ri for library stuff. After that, I check the ruby-talk
archives or just plain google.

[...]

You may already know this, but ri was created by Dave using Pickaxe.