found_drama

• Mephisto

  “The best blogging system ever” (Ruby-on-Rails blogging/CMS app; no plans to switch F_D to it at this time…)

  (tags: blog Rails Ruby mephisto research)

• Techno.FM

  Electronic Radio

  (tags: music)

• Replacing AppleScript with Ruby

  @MacDevCenter (via RSS; via TUAW): Neuberg on methods of replacing AppleScript with Ruby (looks like this is a trend gathering lots of steam recently…)

  (tags: applescript Ruby essay todo)

• Mastering Cocoa with Ruby

  via RubyCocoa Resources: “Build Your Own Bionics”

  (tags: R Ruby Cocoa Mac OSX tutorial dev)

• Top 25 Web 2.0 Search Engines | OEDb

  (tags: search web tools research todo)

• The Cathedral

  (tags: todo)

• Tracks

  Ruby on Rails-based GTD webapp…

  (tags: freeware GTD Ruby Rails opensource)

• Learn Ruby on Rails: the Ultimate Beginner’s Tutorial

  via Server Side Essentials

  (tags: dev Ruby Rails tutorial todo)

• Rails Framework Documentation

  Ruby on Rails framework documentation … the nitty grits and naughty bits.

  (tags: api framework Rails Ruby reference)

• ))) unfoundsound + foundsound )))

  (tags: mp3 dj music)

• the stikkit api

  via values of n blog

  (tags: productivity api Stikkit)

• Building Ruby, Rails, Mongrel, and MySQL on Mac OS X

  via The Hivelogic Narrative

  (tags: howto Mac OSX Ruby Rails dev MySQL)

• The Apache Velocity Project

  (tags: apache framework java opensource webdev velocity)

• Burn

  via LifeHacker: open source app to burn just about anything on OS X. All-in-one enough to do it all?

  (tags: DVD Mac OSX opensource todo)

For various reasons, I decided to give TextMate another try (as I may be hitting Smultron’s upper limits). One of the reasons was to because I felt like trying my hand at a few Rails tutorials and TextMate is supposed to be the de facto standard editing environment for that kind of development¹ — and thus begins our chicken-and-egg question.

Anyway: day one of our TextMate evaluation period and I figure: No time to lose, better get crackin’ on a tutorial or two… In particular, I have my eye on this tutorial from over on the Apple developer site; it seemed to apply most directly to my specific aims in learning the language and appeared to take the most direct approach. A quick install of MySQL and Locomotive later and I’m ready to go…

But we don’t get very far, do we?

The instructions in the tutorial conflict with each other and make some assumptions about what you have (or have not done) with respect to setting up your $ENV and $PATH (etc.) On the one hand, they mention Locomotive by name as a “golden-path” method to get up and running and on the other, they’re linking out to the Hivelogic build tutorial. At any rate, there is a disconnect — and I’m fairly convinced it has to do with what is or isn’t in the $PATH; specifically, Rails doesn’t seem to know where to find “rubygems” and I’m pretty confident that it has to do with Locomotive and its “Bundles”. For example:

1. The article says to set up the project on the command line using rails expenses — but it doesn’t like that. Apparently, “rails” cannot be found. But that’s no problem. Locomotive takes care of this set up on your behalf anyway.
2. Next it says to throw script/server into the command line. I’ll admit that I skipped this one. Again: Locomotive is more than happy to do this on your behalf.
3. Where we get into trouble is with the migration generator:

$ script/generate migration accounts
./script/../config/boot.rb:18:in `require': No such file to load -- rubygems (LoadError)
from ./script/../config/boot.rb:18
from script/generate:2:in `require'
from script/generate:2

…? Not seeing a way to do this through Locomotive, I try to work my way backwards through the code. The error message certainly gives me the right breadcrumbs. Perhaps I’m still too novice with Ruby itself to fully determine what it means. I’ve got enough experience with other languages to make a guess: just like it says, it can’t fine “rubygems” but only because that file isn’t where the script expects it to be. A quick Spotlight search for “rubygems” uncovers 21 files and 8 directories (all buried deep within that “Bundles” directory that Locomotive has installed for itself.

So why the mismatch?

At this stage, I’m not certain. Which is a drag because I was expecting a much cleaner install, a much cleaner first impression. How am I supposed to “get” the beauty of this full stack framework when the only thing it wants to do for me is choke and throw errors? Alas, we’ll call it an unsuccessful night and hang up our spurs. For now.

1. Though their marketing literature would sure have you believe that it’s the de facto standard editor for any geek textnology on OS X.[↩]

• Recommended font resources for web designers
  A little light on content/resources but overall a not-too-shabby round-up of font resources for web designers. That said: this is NOT a discussion of deploying fonts in the actual page content (think: for your graphics).
  (tags: fonts)
• Mr. Neighborly’s Humble Little Ruby Book
  via LifeHacker: PDF download for a teach-yourself-Ruby book.
  (tags: dev Ruby Rails reference tutorial todo)

• HappyCodr
  (indirectly via HiveLogic) a Ruby on Rails Showcase
  (tags: Ruby Rails web)
• Moving Through Matter with Buckaroo Banzai
  via /.: an essay on the physics behind (within?) the film Buckaroo Bonzai…
  (tags: film geek scifi science essay)

• Using Ruby on Rails for Web Development on Mac OS X
  (tags: dev framework Mac OSX Rails Ruby tutorial webdev todo)
• WinterTrails.org
  (tags: winter snowshoe exercise)
• sitemaps.org
  (tags: Google Yahoo search web xml)