From: doconnel@... (doc)
Date: 2005-09-06T20:01:29+09:00
Subject: Newbie Mixed Bag

Excuse this mixed bag but to me they all come under the heading "help me
get started!". I have a working Ruby installation on win98se and I spent
last week reading many of the Ruby intro's and the chm. This week is
"hands on" and I am using an MS Access db of mine as my focus (along with
an external program to update it). So here goes, from the general to
specific...

1) Is win32 good-enough for learning Ruby on? I have other machines (XP,
OSX) but the win98se machine is my workhorse (being a slim VAIO notebook
it lives on the kitchen table).

2) Are all the RAA files "source code" only? I have no c compiler and
would like to avoid one if poss. I have installed some "gems" but not all
RAA files are packaged as gems, correct? If I do need a c compiler can you
recommend one?

3) Taking Og as an example, where do I find the documentation? I have
tried RI but no matter what term I supply I get either "no info" or "file
not found". I can get most Ruby info from the chm but when it comes to
add-ons (any) I fail to find any documentation (I suspect I'm looking in
the wrong place).

4) Noting Q1, what's the best/easiest/quickest route to ODBC access?

5) Anyone know of a (free) way to convert an MS Access db to  sqlite3?

6) I have installed gems for sqlite3 and Og but cannot find an example of
how to create an Og/sqlite3 connection. I am using the sample database
from www.pool-magic.net's db manager. Using...

  db = Og::Database.connect(
    :database => 'sample.db3',
    :adapter  => 'sqlite3'
  )

...I get "uninitialized constant Og::Database (NameError)". I can do "p
Og.methods" so I know the module has loaded ok.

And a final oddball question: given MS's marketing power do you think Ruby
is likely to get much of a foothold in the corporate sector? I'll be
learning Ruby regardless but it would be great if I could get paid work at
some (distant) point in the future.

Thanks for any/all feedback.