For every new version of RHEL coming out, new software packages is added to the distribution, some old softwares get removed, and most of the software packages get updated version.

The most important changes are all system-config-* tools are gone now. The ext4 file system is the default, instead of ext3 in RHEL5. Python get updated from version 2.4 to 2.6 but Ruby is still in version 1.8.6, only a small minor update from version 1.8.5 in RHEL5. Since RHEL 6 only included in version 1.8.6, it will not even run Rails 3. Rails 3 required at least ruby 1.8.7, or ruby 1.9.2 to run, it’s a shame that Red Hat only include a old version of ruby in their RHEL6, but you can always install REE or compile from source by yourself.

Maybe you can give Ubuntu 10.04 LTS a try, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS also include some interesting feature including MySQL 5.1, python 2.6, Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, and Ubuntu One File Syncing. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is schedule to release on 29 April 2010.

Note that Ruby 1.8.7 p248 and p249 has marshaling bugs that crash both Rails 2.3.x and Rails 3.0.0. Ruby 1.9.1 outright segfaults on Rails 3.0.0, so if you want to use Rails 3 with 1.9.x, jump on 1.9.2 trunk for smooth sailing.

Both Ruby 1.8.7 p248 and p249 crashed and Ruby 1.9.1 have segfaults problem. So it’s time to move on to Ruby 1.9.2. Ruby 1.9.2 is still in the development phase but it will be ready in 4 months. The scheduled release date is 31 July 2010. Let’s install rvm with ruby 1.9.2 to try out the newly released Rails 3 beta 2.

Install rvm

$ mkdir -p ~/.rvm/src && cd ~/.rvm/src && rm -rf ./rvm/ && git clone
git://github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm.git && cd rvm && ./install

The installation will take a while, and after rvm is installed, you’ll need to edit your .bashrc and .bash_profile. Append the following at the end of your .bashrc/.bash_profile:

if[[ -s /Users/stevew/.rvm/scripts/rvm ]];
    then source /Users/stevew/.rvm/scripts/rvm;
fi

Install Ruby 1.9.2 head, remember to install the head of ruby 1.9.2 branch, not the preview1 because ruby 1.9.2 preview1 doesn’t work with tzinfo gem, you will have problem like this

.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-preview1/gems/tzinfo-0.3.18/lib/
tzinfo/timezone.rb:108:in `rescue in get’: protected method 
`setup’ called for #<tzinfo::datatimezone:0x000000024b7cb8> 
(TZInfo::InvalidTimezoneIdentifier)

$ rvm install 1.9.2-head

It will take a while to download and compile the ruby 1.9.2. once completed you can run the ruby command to verify the ruby version.

$ rvm 1.9.2-head
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.2dev (2010-04-07 trunk 27247) [x86_64-darwin10.3.0]

Set the default ruby version to ruby 1.9.2-head

$ rvm 1.9.2-head --deafult

Install Rails3 beta2, you don’t need to use sudo here to install gem beacuse all gems will install in your local home directory

$ gem install tzinfo builder memcache-client rack rack-test rack-mount erubis mail text-format thor bundler i18n
$ gem install rails --pre

Install sqlite/mysql gems for rails

$ gem install sqlite3-ruby
$ gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-dir=/usr/local/mysql

Just create a new project as usual and that’s it. you are now ready to try out Rails 3 beta 2.

As a Rails programmer, you should already grab a copy of Rails 3 beta to learn the future development of Rails. I have already installed Rails 3 beta on my Mac. Rails 3 run smoothly on new project, except RSpec and Cucumber not supported. I was able to work on existing project on Rails 2.3.5 after installed Rails 3 beta, nothing weird has happened except when I want to start a new Rails 2.3.5 project.

MyMac:work stevew$ rails _2.3.5_ rails2project
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems.rb:777:in `report_activate_error': 
RubyGem version error: railties(3.0.0.beta not = 2.3.5) (Gem::LoadError)
	from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems.rb:211:in `activate'
	from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems.rb:1056:in `gem'
	from /usr/local/bin/rails3:18:in `'

What’s wrong with my rails 2.3.5? It turns out is the problem of railties gem installed by rails 3 beta, railties gem doesn’t exists before rails 3 beta, so it complain railties version 2.3.5 not found. I start google around, and I am not alone, there is a few people out there have the same problem, and I finally found the temporary solution in the web, but I forget the link. So here is the soltion:

edit your rails script, my rails is installed at /usr/local/bin/rails, change the last 2 line to

#gem 'railties', version
#load Gem.bin_path('railties', 'rails', version)
 
gemname = 'railties'
gemname = 'rails' if version.split(".").first.to_i == 2
gem gemname, version
load Gem.bin_path(gemname, 'rails', version)

Basically, we only replace the gem name of railties to rails if the version params start with 2.

Word and Excel Form are usually Poorly Design

Truth be told, most forms in Enterprise are poorly designed or don’t have design at all. These forms are usually created by executives, these forms are created to fullfil those executives need  to collect whatever informations they like. Those forms are not design to at users standpoint. But the most important problem is that Word and Excel are not suitable to design form for user to input.

What’s wrong with Word and Excel

1. People like to use underline character as the “grid line”, so when you try to type in something, those “grid line” move while you are typing.

2. Those cell in Excel are too short, the information you type in usually span into multiple cell making those “Form” unreadable.

3. Many people like to print out the form and fill in by hand and then submit. Your printer driver and setting will affect the print out, those wrong margin will make your 1 page form into 2 pages one.

I just don’t think Word and Excel is a good tool for both design and fill in form. PDF is a good option, but people seldom use it right, PDF form allows us to design form in e.g. Word or Excel and export it to PDF,  and then use acrobat (not acrobat reader) to design the input field. The problem of the PDF solution is that, you have to design the form twice, once for design the layout, the other for design the input field. The main problem is many people don’t know they can use acrobat reader to input the form and submit it via email. They just print out the form and fill in by hand. Many tree was killed because the stupidity of those PHB.

There Should be a Better Form Solution

Stay tuned, we are developing a solution for that. If you want to keep updates, you can join our mailing list here.

Details as follow:

Topic: iPhone Mobile Advertising Best Practices / User Experience

Date and Time: 23 Oct 2009, Friday 6:45 pm – 8:30 pm, talk begins at 7:15 pm sharp (iCal event)

Venue: Ultimate PC & Mac Gallery, Central Shop Two – G/F, 99 Des Voeux Road, Central (Google map)

Registration: Facebook

Event Contact: @billibala

This is the first REE target to compatible with ruby 1.8.7, the exact version is ruby 1.8.7-p174, all previous REE versions are target to compatible with ruby 1.8.6. As the development of Rails 3.0 is going well, we will need a new ruby version for the upcoming release. Rails 3.0 required at least ruby version 1.8.7, so this is a move to ruby 1.8.7. Mac OSX snow leopard comes with ruby 1.8.7 out of the box. Most version of Linux also shipped with ruby 1.8.7, but not quite true for RHEL.

RHEL5 comes with ruby 1.8.5, that’s ok for a 2 year old distribution, but for the upcoming RHEL6, which probably based on fedora 10/11, which shipped with ruby 1.8.6. This version of REE is time saver for those people on RHEL. Come on Redhat guys, give us a more updated version of Ruby please!

If you planned to install this version of REE on snow leopard, make sure you run the installer with --no-tcmalloc switch.

P.S. we will probably got an update version of Agile Web Development with Rails around Christmas, and all those examples in version 4 of the pickaxe book will be working on Ruby 1.9.2. If I have a new Rails project to start, I’ll probably pick version 1.9.

No Method Error undefined method `^’ for “b”:String

The error comes from file

active_support-2.3.4/lib/active_support/message_verifier.rb

So with a little google I found others had the same issue as well, and there already have a lighthouse ticket #3144 and a patch on rails. The patch can be download from the lighthouse link.

to applied the patch

$cd /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-2.3.4 $sudo patch -p1 < /tmp/0001-ruby-1.9-friendly-secure_compare.patch

then type lib/active_support/message_verifier.rb  when it ask which file to patch, I hope the Rails team can release a quick fix to fixed this bug.