Setting up your machine for Ruby on Rails development

So you want to learn how to be a programmer. And so you log onto CodeAcademy, crack open a book, or attend a Ruby On Rails class. What most courses fail to do is to help set up your computer for programming.

It’s one thing to write some code into a console and get a response. It’s another thing to view a live site in your browser.

I recently set up my MacBook Air for development. I configured my development environment for Ruby On Rails with PostgreSQL as the database and GIT as the version control.

1. Install Ruby on Rails and component parts.

The best resource was the book, Ruby on Rails Tutorial as it walks through the install steps.

Follow the instructions in Chapter 1 carefully and you should be all set on the Ruby on Rails part.

2. Host your Git repository

You can use GitHub to host your repository, but private projects are not free.

I’m using Dropbox to host my Git repository. I like the Dropbox solution because I can access the repository from any machine I have dropbox installed on without having to worry about any other outside providers.

Follow the instructions by Bradley White

3. Install PostgreSQL

I choose install PostgreSQL because I’m deploying to Heroku and want to develop against the same database that I would eventually deploy to.

Follow this screencast to install and setup.

That should be all. Let me know if you have any questions.

Happy coding.