From: Brian Candler Date: 2010-05-03T16:46:32+09:00 Subject: Re: bottom line question to help me get started Kaye Ng wrote: > I will take Walton's advice and read the "poignant guide to Ruby". Try this too: http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/ It's an old version of a book (for ruby 1.6) but this edition is free, and most of it is still valid today. You can buy the 2nd edition for ruby 1.8, or the 3rd edition for ruby 1.9. > Are you telling me that I could develop a calculator program thru Ruby > WITHOUT using an IDE? Certainly. But the program would be written by typing text, not by dragging UI elements. As others have said: if you're not comfortable with writing applications this way, then maybe Ruby isn't for you. As far as I know, the Ruby "IDEs" out there are just windowy editors where you can launch your code from within the editor. However, in the 21st century, maybe you don't want a "GUI" application at all - maybe you want to write a web application. This means the "GUI" is in fact a web browser, and it allows the data to be shared between users in the business, and the users to be remote from where the server is running. Just something to think about. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.