I had no real opinion on ruby.  Heard it was like python, just different.  I like python.  I wanted to take a look at sproutcore, new javascript library that all the cool kids are talking about.  sproutcore uses ruby for a variety of reasons. Whatever, no big.  I work on a mac so Leopard has ruby preinstalled right?.  A quick check proved my suspicions.

ruby -v 

ruby 1.8.6 (2008-03-03 patchlevel 114) [universal-darwin9.0]

gem -v

1.0.1

Ok, so maybe I will just install sproutcore (using gem which seems to be ruby’s easy_install) and go on to see what all this brand new (yet just another) javascript library fuss is about.  

sudo gem install sproutcore

This gave me …

Bulk updating Gem source index for: http://gems.rubyforge.org

I killed it after approximately 30 minutes (that is not a misprint, I said 30 MINUTES) believing it perhaps did not understand I just wanted to fracking install sproutcore not download/update the index of the ruby gods.  Just sproutcore please.  

I tried it again, same results but my patience was on a much shorter fuse.  Tried the –help to see if there was a flag to set gem to not fuckall but none was apparent to me. 

Not willing to give up that easily I went to http://gems.rubyforge.org.  Simple website which informed me I could see the index in yaml.  Ok.  It downloaded in 4-5 seconds.  Is this yaml document the same index that gem is speaking of?  If so what the hell is gem doing?  

So anyways … fuck ruby and gem.

6 Responses to “My first time with Ruby and Gem”

  1. Certainly, gems needs some work, but it’s a one time startup cost. Do you just stare at the screen waiting for code to run? Set it running and go do something else for a while. writing off a whole programming environment because of one mistake in one tool is silly.

  2. brainopia said

    You just need to install newer version of rubygems from http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubygems/. And you will never experience long intervals again.

  3. Dave said

    You are not worthy. Try PHP.

  4. futago said

    Do a:

    gem update –system

    first to update Rubygems to the latest version.

    Speed has improved a lot since 1.0.1.

  5. Matthew Williams said

    Like the above comment mentions, run a sudo gem update –system

    You’re behind a few dot releases (well, Leopard is), latest is 1.2.0, the latest version of RubyGems no longer requires itself to index like you saw.

  6. meantheory said

    I tried the various suggestions:

    sudo gem update –system (a little over a minute)
    now sproutcore installs (a little over a minute as well)

    I shall modify my previous statement:
    Ruby is removed back to the status of I have no real opinion because I have no real experience with it. Fuck gem 1.01 which was a horrid first date. Her older sister though is just fine.

    Apple really should have given you ruby guys/gals a better release version of your package management system.

    Off to the sproutcore now. Thanks one and all for the suggestions.

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