From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-06-18T00:33:34+09:00
Subject: Re: Nervous Nuby Starting Out!


On Jun 17, 2007, at 5:42 AM, Axel Etzold wrote:

> Dear Macrubyist,
>
> welcome to the Ruby language!
>
>> Anybody out there who's patient and willing to give a newby help if
>> required?
>
> Many patient people are around on this here ... just post your  
> problem :)
>
>
>> I'm just starting out considering trying to learn Ruby as a first
>> language
>
> There is a very nice tutorial on the web that presupposes almost
> no knowledge about computing :
>
> http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/?Chapter=00
>
> It will guide you from the very first beginnings to coding a program
> that involves a dinosaur baby's behavior, as it might be observed
> in computer games,  so you'll really get a feel of the more complex
> things in a very short time.
>
>
>> Suddenly
>> I'm bumping into limitations of Applescript for things I want to  
>> do, and
>> they're not necessarily to do with hooking apps up (which I know  
>> how to
>> ask for help for from the mailing list) as much as fairly simple  
>> 'unixy'
>> things to do with strings, simple XML and regexes, plus the stuff  
>> about
>> basic program design, flow control &c.
>
> Well I don't really know too much about Applescript and whether you  
> could
> use it to do things you want, but Ruby certainly is able to do all  
> these
> things.
> For xml parsing, there's Hpricot and there are very nice tutorials  
> about it, also, there
> is rio
>
> http://rio.rubyforge.org/ ,
>
> for i/o processing, which I use very often.
> As you go, you'll find that many other packages are distributed
> in a nice way as "gems", which you can easily install and work with  
> right away.
>
>
>> (and regexes and hashes if I can cautiously start to get my head
>> round them).
>
> A hash is just a dictionary, that associates a set of keys to some
> other set, the set of values. These can be of all kinds:
>
> english_german={'head'=>['Kopf','Haupt','Hydrozephalus'],
> 'body'=>'Koerper','foot'=>'Fuss',number_of_feet_in_humans=>2}
>
> For Regexps, there is  a nice tutorial here:
>
> http://www.regular-expressions.info/ruby.html
>
> Ruby has extensive online documentation,
>
> http://www.rubycentral.com/book/
>
> Personally, I've also liked Hal Fulton's book
> "The Ruby Way" with its many examples a great deal.
>
>> Especially if somebody would tell me it's really easy to compile
>> from source under Darwin, because the last time I tried to compile  
>> from
>> source it was in an abortive attempt to learn Linux several years  
>> ago,
>> with
>> several unfriendly problems, and I'm scared.
>
> Ruby should be there right away, if you have OS 10.2 or later.
> But it is certainly a good idea to be able to compile something  
> from source, if you want to work with packages .. you can move this to
> next week, though.
>
>
>
>> -- 
>> The (...and where are all those cartoon foxes, anyway? Could do with
>> seeing a friendly face...) MacRubyist
>
> You can also learn Ruby from comics - here: http:// 
> poignantguide.net/ruby
>
> Best regards,
>
> AQxel
> -- 
> Ist Ihr Browser Vista-kompatibel? Jetzt die neuesten
> Browser-Versionen downloaden: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/browser
>
Welcome !
There is also an AppleScript gem. Once you get comfy with Ruby and  
RubyGems, you can use the AppleScript Gem to write Ruby in place of  
AppleScript for scripting applications on your mac!