Ink is a big expense in my household. If changing the fonts in the documents that I print can save me money then it is definitely worth while to make this simple change. I will also have fewer cartridges hanging around waiting to be refilled or recycled (why are those recycle envelopes so hard to come by?), and I will cause less pollution in a very teeny tiny way.

The article just mentions email. For me, changing my Firefox fonts will have the biggest impact.

Waikiki dawn

When I heard about a Aloha on Rails, I jumped on the chance to attend a local conference. Having been to several JavaOne conferences, I knew how helpful they were they were for learning best practices, discovering what people were adopting, and getting a view of what’s coming down the pike. I definitely got all of that, but I unexpectedly took away a lot more.

For one, it was my first “local” conference (well it is an airplane ride away, but it still felt local to me). I was happy to find that about half the people I talked to are developers in Hawaii and a lot of business cards were exchanged with the hope that we could all meet again at Aloha on Rails 2.

Second, it was a small conference. After the first day and a nice pau hana party put on by Agathon Group (thanks guys), everyone was starting to look familiar and we were having great discussions. The theme of the conference was talk story, and that definitely was going on both in the conference rooms and outside. Small conferences also mean that the speakers are easily accessible. Here were people that I have been following for years, like Chad Fowler, Obie Fernandez, Charles Nutter, and Yehuda Katz, that I got to meet face-to-face, as well as people I hadn’t heard about but are now on my follow list, such as Blythe Dunham, Jim Weirich (have you learned to play Hawaiian Lullabye on your uke yet?), and Desi McAdam, founder of DevChix. I don’t know if it is because everyone was a Rails developer (and following the Rails way), the aloha atmosphere, or what, but it really was a nice crowd of people to hang with.

Last, while there was a lot of good info about how to do Rails right and what is the best stuff to use, the bigger take away for me was how important it is to develop personal connections and get involved in communities. That seemed to be the theme spreading through all the talks…how good things happen when you connect with and share with people outside of your daily job tasks. So that is my new mantra…Get Connected. The first thing I did when I returned to work was to join an online community of tech people on the Big Island, and I have already exchanged emails with a couple of people (whoo hoo, I am not alone). Next, I need to get involved with an open source community. It might be something in the cloud, or some Rails project (maybe a cloud one), I don’t know. If you have suggestions, pass them on.

So, anyway, I am pretty energized by the small conference experience. If you haven’t done one, you gotta try it. And a BIG thanks to Seth for making it happen. Great job.

Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing rmagick:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
C:/jruby/jruby-1.1.5/bin/jruby.bat extconf.rb install rmagick --no-rdoc --no-ri
C:/jruby/jruby-1.1.5/lib/ruby/1.8/mkmf.rb:7: JRuby does not support native extensions. Check wiki.jruby.org for alternatives. (NotImplementedError)
from C:/jruby/jruby-1.1.5/lib/ruby/1.8/mkmf.rb:1:in `require'
from extconf.rb:1
Gem files will remain installed in C:/rubyrepos/jrubygemrepo/gems/rmagick-2.9.1 for inspection.
Results logged to C:/rubyrepos/jrubygemrepo/gems/rmagick-2.9.1/ext/RMagick/gem_make.out

As you would guess, you then need to hunt for an equivalent gem that will work with JRuby. Anything with “pure Ruby” in its description is a good bet. In the case of RMagick, there is a RMagick4j. Some other examples JRuby compatible gems are
Mongrel, Hpricot, ImageVoodoo, JRuby-OpenSSL, JRuby/LDap, json_pure, and postgres_pr.

If you are developing with both Ruby and JRuby, you might want to create a separate repository that holds the gems that work for both implementations, and then put that repository into your GEM_PATH. That way, you won’t have to install the gem twice. If you are using NetBeans IDE, use the Ruby Platform Manager to add the repository to a platform’s GEM_PATH.

If you want to require a certain gem based on whether you are running on JRuby, you can check whether JRUBY_VERSION is defined.

Not knowing how to tell the IDE to use a different JDK, the user reinstalled the NetBeans software.

If you don’t know already, there is no need to go to such lengths. Here are two ways to tell the IDE which JDK to use.

• Specify the JDK in the startup command. Modify the command that starts the IDE to include the --jdkhome option pointing to the desired JDK. For example:

  netbeans-install-dir/bin/netbeans.exe --jdkhome "%JAVA_HOME%"

  The above example uses the %JAVA_HOME% environment
  variable, which is set to C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_10, but you can just supply
  in the path instead. If it has spaces in it, put the path in
  quotes (that’s why the environment variable is in quotes).

• Specify the desired JDK in the netbeans.conf file. Open the netbeans-install-dir/etc/netbeans.conf file, look for the following option and set it to point to the desired JDK. You might need to unremark the setting.

  netbeans_jdkhome="path-to-jdk"

If you are not able to modify the netbeans.conf file because you are sharing the installation or you don’t have permission, you can instead create an etc folder in your NetBeans userdir and put a netbeans.conf file in the etc folder. You only need to put in the options that you want to override. For more information see the
How do I make my custom startup parameters permanent? FAQ.


]]> http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/telling-netbeans-ide-which-jdk-to-use/feed/ 0 altocirrus http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/installing-your-own-jruby-to-use-with-the-netbeans-ide/ http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/installing-your-own-jruby-to-use-with-the-netbeans-ide/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:13:20 +0000 altocirrus http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/installing-your-own-jruby-to-use-with-the-netbeans-ide/ Continue reading →]]> The Ruby support for NetBeans includes a bundled JRuby installation. This is great for quickly getting started with the IDE, but I recommend that you download and install your own version of JRuby and use that one instead. There are a few reasons for doing so, one of which is that the next time you install a NetBeans version, you will get a new bundled JRuby installation,
most likely a different version. If you have added gems to the old bundled JRuby, you will have to reinstall those gems to the new bundled JRuby.

Another reason is when you want to work with more recent JRuby version. For this reason alone, it is good to learn how to install JRuby and register it with the IDE. Below are the steps that I do to add a JRuby installation.

1. First download JRuby from the JRuby site and
   install it by following the Getting Started instructions.

   TIP: If you are downloading the 6RC1 version, after you unpack it, rename the directory from jruby-1.1.6RC1 to jruby-1.1.6. For some reason, The GlassFish app server barfs on the RC1 in the path name.

2. Put JRuby’s bin in your environment path. I remember reading some recommendation that if you have both Ruby and JRuby,
   put JRuby after Ruby in the path. Because I switch out JRuby versions often, I created a JRUBY environment variable that
   points to the bin directory of the JRuby that I am working with, and I added the JRUBY environment variable to my path. To test it, I type jruby -v on the command line.

3. Now you can register your new JRuby installation with the NetBeans IDE. Choose Tools > Ruby Platforms from
   the main menu. Choose Add Platform, and navigate to and select the JRuby executable in the bin directory.
   If you are on Windows, this is jruby.bat. Click Open.

4. This step is optional, and I don’t suggest it if you are new to Ruby and installing gems. I get tired of having to install the same gems over and over every time I upgrade JRuby, so
   I create a separate repository (outside of the installation folder) for the gems. If you want to do this,
   click the Browse button to the right of the Gem Home text box, type the path to your gem repository,
   and click Open. (If you
   don’t have one yet, use the New Folder button in the dialog box to create it, such as some-ruby-repo-path/jrubygemrepo. When you click Open, it will ask if you want to set up
   your repository there, click OK.)

   Next click the Add button to the right of the Gem Path text box and add the repository to the gem path.

5. You will need the debugger gems. Follow the instructions on the NetBeans Ruby Debugger wiki page.
   Make sure you get the correct versions — the ones noted on the wiki page. If you opted for a separate gems repository
   in the previous step, then add --install-dir your-repo-path to the gem install
   commands.

6. Next, I install Rails. You can do this from
   the command line, or from the IDE’s Ruby Gems Manager, which is available from the main menu. When you open the Ruby
   Gems manager, click the Settings tab and select Fetch All Versions so that you
   have a choice of which version to download. Then click the New Gems tab
   and click Reload Gems. Select Rails and click Install. You will be asked
   to select a version.
   If you want to follow the 6.5 tutorials,
   be sure to install Rails 2.1.2 or 2.1.0 because you need Rails 2.1.* for the tutorials. Version 2.1.1 is not compatible with JRuby.

7. Some other gems you might want to install right away are jruby-openssl, Active Record JDBC Adapter, and the JDBC
   adapters for the databases that you use. See
   Using Database Servers With JRuby for more information about the JDBC adapters.

Hopefully, this is complete enough to get you going. Please add comments if you have suggestions or steps to add.


]]> http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/installing-your-own-jruby-to-use-with-the-netbeans-ide/feed/ 0 altocirrus http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/no-such-file-to-load-mysql/ http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/no-such-file-to-load-mysql/#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:56:29 +0000 altocirrus http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/no-such-file-to-load-mysql/ Continue reading →]]> Rails never fails me. As soon as I publish a series of
tutorials for a NetBeans release, a new Rails release comes
out which breaks my tutorials (and, apparently, most everyone
else’s). Gratefully, some customers
took the time to click the Feedback button at the end
of our tutorials to let us know the tutorials were no longer working.
One customer wrote:


“When trying to create the database following the steps indicated, I got an error indicating
the mysql gem had been removed from Rails 2.2.2 and that I should install the mysql gem.
(Note from me: the actual error message is
“The bundled mysql.rb driver has been removed from Rails 2.2. Please
install the mysql gem and try again: gem install mysql.”)
However, that gem is also native and can’t be installed with JRuby (the misleading
directive to do so from NetBeans was really annoying).”

I have to agree that this is indeed REALLY annoying. However, the “misleading
directive” comes from Rails, and not from NetBeans. And, since Rails 2.2
came out after NetBeans 6.5, this was an unexpected message.

While the directive may be true for Ruby, it is not true
for JRuby, because the the MySQL adapter is included with JRuby.
In addition, as the user pointed out,
you can’t install the mysql gem with JRuby because you cannot use
any gems that build native C libraries during the install process,
and that includes the mysql gem.

I did some googling and found two solutions:

• Use the activerecord-jdbcmysql-adapter. You can find
  the instructions on how to do that here.
• Copy the MySQL driver to your project’s lib folder. If you have an older Rails version, you can copy the Ruby MySQL driver
  (mysql.rb) from
  rails-install-dir/gems/activerecord-version/lib/active_record/vendor/mysql.rb
  to the project’s lib directory. Unfortunately, you have to do this for
  every JRuby project.

If anyone else has any other solutions, please post a comment.

P.S. For all you Ruby programmers, when you try out a tutorial, you really should
pay attention to what gem versions the tutorial was written for. Gem releases such
as Rails and RSpec are not always backwards compatible, so there is a chance
that the tutorial will not work
with releases that came out after the tutorial was written.


]]> http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/no-such-file-to-load-mysql/feed/ 0 altocirrus http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/our-netbeans-ruby-book-is-done/ http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/our-netbeans-ruby-book-is-done/#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:41:22 +0000 altocirrus http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/our-netbeans-ruby-book-is-done/ Continue reading →]]>

If you have been wondering why this blog has been so quiet for so long, it is because I was working on a NetBeans Ruby book with Brian Leonard. Brian asked me to help him with the book and I am glad that he did. It was a good experience working with Brian and I am happy with how it turned out.

The book is published by Apress and is available in ebook and hard copy
here.

In the book we delve into the details of how to use the IDE to develop Ruby and Ruby on Rails projects. If you haven’t tried NetBeans IDE 6.5 yet, I am sure you will find the book helpful from start to finish. For those who are upgrading, the book helps you to learn about the new features. Even if you are an experienced NetBeans user, I bet you will find stuff you don’t know, especially in the chapters on using the editor and on customizing the IDE.

We got a lot of help from a lot of people along the way. Foremost were the NetBeans Ruby engineers Erno Mononen and Martin Krauskopf who patiently answered every question. Erno was also the book’s technical reviewer. Tor Norbye contributed to the editing chapter, and Nick Sieger helped with the chapters about Warbler and JRuby. When it came to GlassFish, we leaned on Arun Gupta and Peter Williams.

I would also like to thank the frequent posters to the users@ruby.netbeans.org alias, such as Bharat, Anthony, and James, who provided a good user perspective and answered my requests for information about best practices.

Last, I want to show appreciation for my managers Sophia and Dave for their support all the way through the process, and for my husband who took over most of my chores without complaint so I could spend my spare time working on the book.


]]> http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/our-netbeans-ruby-book-is-done/feed/ 2 altocirrus http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/fixing-the-rails-requires-rubygems-1-3-1-error/ http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/fixing-the-rails-requires-rubygems-1-3-1-error/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:45:43 +0000 altocirrus http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/fixing-the-rails-requires-rubygems-1-3-1-error/ Continue reading →]]> Many of you who are trying out the NetBeans IDE Ruby support are running into the following error message:

Rails requires RubyGems >= 1.3.1 (you have 1.2.0). Please `gem update
--system` and try again.

This is not a NetBeans error message. It is generated by the Rails framework. This error message happens if you upgrade to Rails 2.2.2.

To compound the frustration, it seems that the suggested command gem update --system does not work on all versions of Ruby Gems. When you try the command, you get a message that there is nothing to update. Fortunately, there is a work around.

Here is one way to fix this Rails/Ruby Gems version mismatch. If you have more than one Ruby installation (for example, you have the JRuby that is installed with the IDE and you have a separate MRI Ruby installation), you need to run the command for each installation. Note that the path to the bundled JRuby bin directory is <netbeans-install-dir>/ruby2/jruby-1.1.4/bin.

In the following steps, replace ruby with jruby if you are updating your JRuby installation.

1. Open a terminal window and change (cd) to the JRuby or Ruby bin directory.

2. Type ruby -S gem --version

   If the version is 1.3.1, then that installation has already been updated and you are done. Otherwise, continue.

3. Type ruby -S gem install rubygems-update

4. Type ruby -S update_rubygems

5. To ensure that the update happened, type ruby -S gem --version


]]> http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/fixing-the-rails-requires-rubygems-1-3-1-error/feed/ 8 altocirrus http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/quick-note-about-whats-new-in-netbeans-ide-6-5-ruby-support/ http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/quick-note-about-whats-new-in-netbeans-ide-6-5-ruby-support/#comments Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:04:14 +0000 altocirrus http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/quick-note-about-whats-new-in-netbeans-ide-6-5-ruby-support/ Continue reading →]]> Here are some of the new features that you will find in the 6.5 release of the NetBeans IDE Ruby Support.
• New Run/Debug Rake Task action and dialog box
• New Test Runner including Autotest support
• Support for Warbler instead of Goldspike, so now
  can WAR up Ruby projects as well as JRuby projects
• Integrated GlassFish V3 deployment
• Additional debugging support: exception & conditional breakpoints
• New options in Settings tab of Gems Manager
• Mark Occurrences Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Down
• Rubinius support
• Support for script/destroy
• Ability to set the Rails version at project creation
• Ability to set editor formatting on a project-by-project basis using the Project Properties dialog box

]]> http://altocirrus.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/quick-note-about-whats-new-in-netbeans-ide-6-5-ruby-support/feed/ 5 altocirrus