Ruby on Rails is fantastic. That’s probably the greatest way to describe it. For years, I have stuck my nose briefly into about every programming language known to nerd, starting with Python and ending in Objective-C. Ruby was found somewhere in there, a long time ago. After each and every failure, I usually respond to the situation by promising myself to never program (or try to program) again. But this is different. I have always claimed to hate Web apps, swearing by NetNewsWire and Mail.app rather than Newsgator and Gmail. There’s just something about Ruby that I always liked, and I love Backpack. What makes it great is it’s simplicity–something the Mac usually leads the race in.
I started my little adventure by roaming around the net like Babe the pig in the big city, and then I came across the Rails website. Hmmm, how great. But see the problem was, I am lazy. I am too lazy to install MySQL. Too lazy to get PHP to run. Too lazy to update my Ruby distribution, then install Rails…Just lazy. Lazy is a trait of mine. When all hope seemed lost, I came across MAMP, a great little Mac app that runs a MySQL database and Apache server right from within your Applications folder. The thing I love about it is there is almost no configuration, you just hit “Start the Servers!”, and they start! Well, sorta. I fucked around with MySQL for like two hours, and it wouldn’t work. Finally, I rebooted to clear out what processes were running, and sure enough there it went…Now onto Rails!
Rails was pretty easy, too. I went the lazy route again, and found myself another little friend named Locomotive. Locomotive is the exact same thing as MAMP, only it does Rails. They work together well, except for one little thing. Try as I did, I could not get my Rails apps to connect to MySQL server. So, if you have this problem too. Do what I did. Open your app folder, go into config, then open database.yml. In your development setup enter this:
socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock
That took me hours to figure out. I’m an idiot. Anyway, now I am watching videos and reading tutorials, and making all kinds of things. Scaffolding is such a great concept. It really is. Cocoa was great, but Rails has won my heart. Plus, like the dudes from SubEthaEdit, the developers have German accents. And everyone knows Germans kick ass. Literally.
That’s awesome! I never installed Rails onto my Mac but I did install it to my web server and couldn’t figure out a damn thing so I quit. I already have MySQL and PHP installed on my Mac so I might as well try out Locomotive and actually try some tutorials because RoR does sound really neat, but my mind is too ingrained with PHP.
Great work! I love MAMP already but now it has friends. Thanks for the tip.
ps has your girlfriend read this post?