From: Cliff Rowley <cliffrowley@...>
Date: 2007-05-12T15:58:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Absolute Beginner - Where to run program?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MichaelCuculich@gmail.com [mailto:MichaelCuculich@gmail.com] 
> Sent: 12 May 2007 05:50
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: Absolute Beginner - Where to run program?
> 
> that is all fine, but my question is: where do you type that 
> command line?

Click Start -> Run, type 'cmd' (without quotes) and hit enter :-)

> another tutorial i was looking at said to find out what 
> version you have installed to type "ruby -v" in the shell - 
> but what exact is the shell?  the unix shell?  if i am using 
> windows xp where do i find that exactly?

The 'shell' under Windows is not very powerful compared to a Unix shell, and
the Windows shell does not support the same set of commands as Unix.

Just a quick overview, try some of these commands:

dir (lists the contents of the current directory)
cd <dir> (change to the directory specified)
mkdir <dir> (creates the directory specified)
rmdir <dir> (removes the directory specified - only if empty)

That's probably about all you'll need :-)  Oh, and all paths on Windows use
a backslash character (\) whereas paths on Unix are specified using forward
slashes (/).  E.g. "C:\Windows\System32" on Windows, vs "/usr/bin" on Unix.

So, for example, to create a 'work' directory on the root of your C drive
and move to it:

cd \
mkdir work
cd work

If you now go to your C drive through My Computer, you'll see a 'work'
directory :-)

Oh, and to change to another drive entirely (e.g. if you are on your C drive
and you wish to change to your D drive) - just type the name of the drive
followed by a colon.  For example, to change to your D drive, just type:

D:

That's it :-)

> i know this may be a really silly question, and i bet it's so 
> simple that they don't post this information anywhere.  i'm 
> almost embarrassed to ask.  but i'd appreciate a kick start 
> here- thanks! :D

Not silly at all :-)  Same with any knowledge.  You don't know until you
know :-)

Incidentally, someone suggested you should use Eclipse.  Please, for your
own sake don't even think about using an IDE like Eclipse until you are
familiar with how things work without one.  Otherwise as soon as something
goes wrong you'll have no idea why and you'll have a mountain of other
things to learn first before you can solve your problems.  Keep it simple
until you feel it nescessary to move onto something advanced.

My 2 pence :-)

Cliff