From: Phillip Gawlowski Date: 2011-04-15T00:42:58+09:00 Subject: Re: Ruby for beginners (was: Re: Hello) On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 5:28 PM, Jim Maher wrote: > Phillip Gawlowski wrote in post #992777: >> _Beginning Ruby editor requirements:_ >> >> - Easy to use, with no clutter in the UI, and thus allowing the user >> to focus on Getting Stuff Done, and get a success fast. >> - Able to run Ruby from within the editor, so that the user can focus >> on Ruby, and Ruby alone. The CLI on Windows is more of an advanced >> topic. > > To me, it's about Ruby, NOT the editor. Same here. However, someone who beings Ruby, let alone programming, is dealing with enough difficulties already, so the fewer assumptions made about existing knowledge, the better. The more of a safety net that is provided by a Beginning Ruby package, the easier it makes for a beginner. > The programmimg language is NOT the IDE.  Yeah, all the cool tools make > it enjoyable to pursue and use Ruby, but that's not what I believe is > necessary to introduce Ruby.  I believe all of that is a distraction > from an introduction to Ruby itself. Absolutely. That's why I'd prefer a very lightweight editor (at least on Windows; I have no idea how the situation is on Mac OS X), to minimize any friction. To provide, more or less, an abstraction for what the more advanced user of Ruby is used to deal with. To provide quick and visible results of progress in programming ("Hello World", except for the whole of Ruby, you could say). > In fact, I believe Rails and even RubyGems are a distraction.  I'd love > more people to be able to easliy learn about Ruby (and only Ruby). Nobody mentioned any of those. :) I think dealing with getting Rails deployed with ease is best done by the Rails Installer project . > But, it's your initiative . . . Oh no. It's a community initiative much more than anything I could claim as my own, even if I wanted to. -- Phillip Gawlowski Though the folk I have met, (Ah, how soon!) they forget When I've moved on to some other place, There may be one or two, When I've played and passed through, Who'll remember my song or my face.