Development Setup

So you want to be a Rails developer? Or at least mess around with it? Here's how I'd setup a new machine.

I use OS X, and as such can offer the best support for that environment. I have some limited experience developing on Linux, but since it's a similar to OS X I can offer some good help there.

I have no development experience in Windows, but I do know that it's not as well supported as Unix environments are. I may be able to offer some help here and there, but you're going to mainly be on your own if many issues arise.

OS X

1. Download & Install Command line tools for XCode (requires a free Apple ID)

2. Install Homebrew by running the following command in Terminal.app

    /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(/usr/bin/curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/master/Library/Contributions/install_homebrew.rb)"
   

3. Install git via Homebrew

    brew install git
   

4. Install RVM by running the following

    bash < <(curl -s https://raw.github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/master/binscripts/rvm-installer)
   

5. Install Ruby 1.9.3 via RVM and set it as your default Ruby

    rvm install 1.9.3
    rvm use 1.9.3 --default
   

6. Install the standard gems gem install bundler rails

7. Now you're good to go. This is the standard environment of most Rails developers, including myself.

Linux

1. Install Ruby & other library that are normally used for Rails development

    sudo apt-get install ri ruby ruby1.8 ruby-dev rake libruby1.8 \
    zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libreadline5-dev libncurses5-dev \
    build-essential curl git-core gitk libxml2 libxml2-dev \
    libxslt1-dev bison autoconf
   

2. Install RVM by running the following

    bash < <(curl -s https://raw.github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/master/binscripts/rvm-installer)
   

3. Install Ruby 1.9.3 via RVM and set it as your default Ruby

    rvm install 1.9.3
    rvm use 1.9.3 --default
   

4. Install the standard gems gem install bundler rails

Windows

I'd highly recommend setting up a Unix environment for development as it is much better suited the various open source tools that you use as a developer. However, if you are unable or unwilling to do so, I've heard fantastic things about The Rails Installer. This includes Ruby 1.9.3 and Rails 3.2.