Updating code tools

Updating code tools

I had a heckuva time today trying to migrate a rails app in progress to postgresql so I could deploy it to Heroku. The migration didn’t work, which led to confirming/installing postgresql. That was a couple times.

It still wasn’t working – no rails splash page, even, let alone anything I’d coded.

So I decided to clone the basic heroku test app to confirm where the error was. That triggered a ruby problem, with mine at 2.0.0 and the test app requiring 2.2. That led to updating RVM, and then trying to update Ruby. That led, in turn, to updating brew. So, here are the steps in the right order, so you can avoid the “get error, search stackoverflow, fix error, continue” sequence and do these in the “right” order:

brew upgrade
rvm get head
rvm install ruby-head

At this point, I’m not sure whether postgresql will work at all, but I feel like I’m back in the days of 1992 when my LT buddy would chide me for having spent all afternoon “playing Windows” trying to get something to work (this was back in the days of 3.1 in the Army, so there weren’t many options). That characterization is what eventually led me to OSX about 4–5 years ago (well, not installing printer drivers wasn’t the only thing).

What this post ends with, though, isn’t frustration: it’s deep appreciation for the people who’ve written all these tools to make things easier. Sure, it may be a bit complicated to start to figure things out and get comfortable with the sequence, but the relative ease and speed with which dramatic capabilities can be harnessed to create a development environment is really freaking amazing.

Thanks, everyone. I am looking forward to the time when I’m able to contribute myself.