Which version do I have then?

[Sebastian Komianos]

Hello there!

After reading the first half of Chris Pine's online tutorial I decided
to buy the book and here I am, preparing my MacBook Pro for my serious
studying which I plan to begin in a few hours.

However, since I am want everything to be up to date, I decided to
update to Ruby 1.9.0 (I previously had 1.8.1). Following this
(http://hivelogic.com/articles/ruby-rails-mongrel-mysql-osx/) I think I
managed to do something, because when I type "ruby -v" on my terminal
I...sometimes take this as the result: ruby 1.9.0 (2007-12-25 revision
14709) [i686-darwin8.11.1]

The "sometimes" goes for the fact that the above only happens when my
folder is "/usr/local/src/ruby-1.9.0". When I am at "/usr/local/src/" or
below, I get this: ruby 1.8.1 (2003-12-25) [i686-darwin]. Which is quite
confusing to me, since it looks like I have both version.

Anyways, I have never had any previous experience with language building
or something relevant so I would really appreciate it if you can tell me
either how to update Ruby or that it doesn't really matter if I have a
previous version.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Phrogz]

Hello there!

After reading the first half of Chris Pine's online tutorial I decided
to buy the book and here I am, preparing my MacBook Pro for my serious
studying which I plan to begin in a few hours.

However, since I am want everything to be up to date, I decided to
update to Ruby 1.9.0 (I previously had 1.8.1). Following this
(http://hivelogic.com/articles/ruby-rails-mongrel-mysql-osx/) I think I
managed to do something, because when I type "ruby -v" on my terminal
I...sometimes take this as the result: ruby 1.9.0 (2007-12-25 revision
14709) [i686-darwin8.11.1]

The "sometimes" goes for the fact that the above only happens when my
folder is "/usr/local/src/ruby-1.9.0". When I am at "/usr/local/src/" or
below, I get this: ruby 1.8.1 (2003-12-25) [i686-darwin]. Which is quite
confusing to me, since it looks like I have both version.

Anyways, I have never had any previous experience with language building
or something relevant so I would really appreciate it if you can tell me
either how to update Ruby or that it doesn't really matter if I have a
previous version.

You may have a variety of binaries installed with the same name, in
different directories. Which version you are using depends on which
binary is 'found' first.

Search for information on the PATH environment variable to understand
how *nix systems resolve the binaries. If you have further questions,
feel free to post again.

I personally have the built-in Ruby Leopard install in /usr/bin/ruby,
my own 1.8.6-p111 build in /usr/local/bin/ruby, and another 1.9 built
as ruby190.

 

[Sebastian Komianos]

Search for information on the PATH environment variable to understand
how *nix systems resolve the binaries. If you have further questions,
feel free to post again.

Sorry but I have no idea on how I am supposed to do this.

I personally have the built-in Ruby Leopard install in /usr/bin/ruby,
my own 1.8.6-p111 build in /usr/local/bin/ruby, and another 1.9 built
as ruby190.

Isn't there an (easy) way I remove any prior to 1.9.0 builts?

Apart from that, am I harming my Mac with all these experiments? It's
just that I can't resist!

(Hope I am not "rubbishing" your emails with my newbish questions)

 

[Tim Hunter]

Sorry but I have no idea on how I am supposed to do this.


Isn't there an (easy) way I remove any prior to 1.9.0 builts?

Apart from that, am I harming my Mac with all these experiments? It's
just that I can't resist!

(Hope I am not "rubbishing" your emails with my newbish questions)

My advice? Remove 1.9.0 and just use the Ruby 1.8.6 that is already
installed on your system. 1.9.0 is not "up to date," it's a developer's
version of Ruby that has bugs and undocumented features. All the books
you'll buy, and 99% of the web sites, describe 1.8.6, not 1.9.0, so all
you'll do is confuse yourself. Dump 1.9.0 until you're a Ruby expert.

Also, buy a book about OS X that describes how to use the shell and Unix
commands. You can't use Ruby effectively on OS X by clicking on things.