From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2005-09-06T22:11:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie Mixed Bag

On 9/6/05, doc <doconnel@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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).

Yes, although I personally wouldn't do it on Win98. As I noted in a
different post, all of my Ruby development at this point is on
Windows.

> 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?

There are instructions available on RubyGarden to get a free version
of the Microsoft compiler. Note that MINGW/MSYS is not compatible with
the most recent build of the Windows Installer version of Ruby. Many
things that require compilation *will not* compile properly on Windows
in any case.

> 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).

You would need to generate the ri data for Og. If you've installed Og
as a gem, do the following:

  C:\> gem_server

Browse to http;//127.0.0.1:3000/ (I *think*; the output of gem_server
will tell you the exact port) and you can read the Og documentation on
that.

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

DBI.

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

Nope.

-austin
-- 
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com
               * Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca