ubuntu-users Digest, Vol 112, Issue 47

[Roger]

On 12/21/2013 07:30 PM, ubuntu-users-request at lists.ubuntu.com wrote:
> I'm not sure I'm getting all of this.  When you say "install" do you
> mean "apt-get install" or one of the ruby things that manages
> packages?  To the extent possible, I'd like to avoid confusing one
> package manager with updates done by another.  I don't know if that's
> an issue with Ruby; I'm just asking to verify because of all of this
> talk about gem or rvm doing package management.
>
> My attempt to "gem -install ...." failed with cryptic error messages,
> posted in the original thread.
>
> I'm running Ruby 1.9, which matches the book I have, and seems to be
> the latest thing in the repositories.  I'm not so interested in the
> latest and greatest until I get that book under my skull.
>
> Thanks,
May I suggest a few things.

In ubuntu, ruby 1.87 or maybe 1.9 is default and needed to install basic 
gems and other things. Ruby 1.87 is about to be killed off.
Ruby 1.9 is old but works well, it does not have the security or speed 
of Ruby2.0

Don't use Ubuntu update manager to update or install rubies.
Use RVM. It is built for the job of managing Ruby and it is excellent.
RVM is not "one of those Ruby things" as you put it,  it is the 
definitive application for managing Ruby.

Install the latest RVM  using wget, do not use apt-get. apt-get install 
ruby has killed off ruby  and damaged other things on my machines.
Google "install RVM Unbuntu13.04" or what ever ubuntu you are using. 
There are excellent step by step instructions, it's how I learned about 
a year ago.

Do rvm install ruby 2.0 as a minimum, even rvm update ruby is very good. 
Ruby devs recommend going straight to 2.0 or greater.
Then do gem update gems.
Use gem install somegemname to install additional gems that you will need.
Do not delete ruby 1.9 because ubuntu needs it.

Most of the ruby 1.9 examples work with ruby 2.0 and greater but I 
suggest learning Ruby 2 or greater as the baseline.
You will have both 1.9 and 2.0 on your system so use RVM to set Ruby 2 
as the default, Instructions in google are very good.
--Do you just want to learn Ruby?
--Will you install and learn rails?
--ri is the terminal reader for Ruby's rdoc files

Cheers
Roger