From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2006-03-24T07:31:55+09:00
Subject: Re: What is a stable way to use postgres with Ruby?

On Mar 23, 2006, at 2:08 PM, stephen.tashiro@us.army.mil wrote:

> stephen.tashiro@us.army.mil wrote:
>>> From the web, I gather the "postgres ruby extension" and  
>>> "postgres pure
>> ruby" are two different ways to use SQL from ruby via postgres.   Are
>> the two methods about the same with respect to their "maturity" and
>> stability?
>>
>> On the postgres ruby extension page:
>> http://ruby.scripting.ca/postgres/
>>
>> Are the "snapshot" versions are meant to be beta versions or are they
>> stable? ( Is the last stable release really from 2003 ?)
>>
>> And, by the way, what is a *.gem file?
>
>> From the OCS Solutions website:
> "What is a Ruby Gem?
> A Ruby gem is a plugin that adds functionality to the Ruby programming
> lanaguage. We always keep up to date with the latest and most popular
> Ruby gems."

Its a way of distributing ruby libraries and applications similar to  
Perl's CPAN or FreeBSD packages or ...

> This leaves the questions:
> Does the
> http://ruby.scripting.ca/postgres/archive/ruby- 
> postgres-20051221.tar.gz
> compile to produce a gem?

Gems can contain binaries but typically don't.

> Is the file
> http://ruby.scripting.ca/postgres/archive/ruby- 
> postgres-0.7.1.2005.12.21.gem
> different that the one the .tar.gz file would compile to?

The gem is capable of doing all the install work for you with the  
single command:

sudo gem install ruby-postgres-0.7.1.2005.12.21.gem

Note that you may have to specify the paths to your postgres library  
and include files, but you'd have to do that with the tar.gz also.

gem install is the only important difference between the two.

-- 
Eric Hodel - drbrain@segment7.net - http://blog.segment7.net
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