Most of the class in Metis is taught using Mac OSX. I've quickly learned that many and most programmers use Mac OSX, LINUX and other unix platforms (at least, among those I've seen in my stay in Boston). Developing on Windows is pretty unpopular - this much I've been told by people I've spoken to.
I've been loaned a mac prepared and ready for use by Metis, as I've brought my Windows 7 laptop along to the course (most of those in the course and the instructors are most familiar and are using Macbooks). I'm familiar with Macs, I've used them every now and then in University, but I was born and raised on Windows. Feeling like I can keep up despite the OS differences, I decide to stay on the Windows while bringing the Mac with me just in case it proves too much.
Week 1, there wasn't much of a difference. Week 2, we've begun work on SQL, ruby gems, multiple ruby versions, etc. and there are tons of UNIX specific programs and commands that my Windows didn't have. Being the only windows user in the class, the pressure was high for me to just boot up the Mac - but I decided to keep pressing on. It required a lot of googling during the lecture itself, and even making sure I was ready before the classes even start.The instructors are able to help if I asked though (the godsend of having 2 at once), but I feel like that I should be able to overcome any issues from my choice on my own.
I have to say: it was a little nervewracking, but it's a feeling I'll have to get used to. I have to make sure I could catch what was being taught in the lectures while at the same time searching for many solutions to whatever thing I needed to do. Once I was on the same page, there was a terse feeling of relief - I wasn't sure when the next time the software would do something unexpected from what was explained and I had to fix it up myself.
Summing up what was taught in the last few days - I'll write a more detailed post later - but we started the week with PostgreSQL. I first installed PSQL with the following links' assistance. It's important to make sure it works and verify that it works on pgAdminIII (easiest way to check. The instructions make it clear):
PostgreSQL for Windows
PostgreSQL Installation tutorial
Once it works out, PSQL should work on your command prompt. You can open git or cmd (I'll set up Vim later in the week) and type:
psqlNow, when I type it out, it asks me for a password (which you establish when you first install psql). However, when I enter anything, it says I've given a wrong password for my user. I think this has to do with the installer I use (hours of googling reveal that not everyone can face this issue) and certainly the others in the class didn't have this problem. So what happened?
Either it was some sort of PC configuration or just how I installed it, the PSQL user profile postgres isn't the default one set when using the psql command in prompt or git - thus it defaults to inputting my computer user profile as the one accessing the psql command. That's not exactly what I want, so I have to specify who's using it (using the installed PSQL shell that came in with the PSQL installation though, by default uses the postgres superuser for accessing the database). The --help command, that is:
psql --helpIs immensely useful because it lists all the other commands and arguments you can attach to psql. So, to access psql, I can use
psql -U postgresin command prompt/git, will let me specify the username to postgres. Then, it will ask me for a password, after putting it in I will have access to the database. By default, the database is postgres - so if I made a new database photo-gallery I have to specify the database:
psql photo-gallery -U postgres One password input later, I'm in the photo-gallery database. That's great and all, though it gets annoying every time to input the user name and password (and in one instance using psql, I found that my password input isn't masked, which is a huge gasp. I've googled for fixes and ways to simplify the process to make it similar to how the Macs seem to have no issue entering/exiting/doing postgres commands, and there's a few suggestions. I'll get more indepth once I commit to a choice on how in another post, but these are the gist of the solutions:
-Make an alias that automatically inputs the username postgres each time
-Edit the authentication process for users that aren't postgres as well as password input
-Just use a linux-emulator (I'll describe this later)
-Adjust a configuration
Again, maybe it's just how my computer is set up, but none of those are straight forward. The other issue is, when you google for a solution, 80% of the solutions, if I don't specify for it, are for OSX/Linux/Ubuntu, not for Windows OS. Another issue is, there are 4-5 different answers on stackoverflow (a godsend of a resource next to programming documentation), but most of them aren't really much in the way of instructions (they assume you know your stuff most of the time,) so you google for particular things in those instructions and so on until you get what you want. Making aliases on git,the way its set up for me doesn't seem to work (I'll be googling to find where the config file it loads from is located) because there seems to be 2-3 different config files (according to the results I'm getting at stack overflow).
Similarly with psql. There's many ways to fix the issue in adjusting configuration, it seems, which is nice and all - though all of them seem to carry some kind of security concern - which is probably much clearer the more I learn about databases, how remote connections connect to my database, etc will allay any fears I have (Hence, why this is part 1). There's neat blogs and pages that explain the important types of security authentication for databases that I'll be reading into for when I get in-depth.
That said, I found a nifty little blog by someone familiar with the installer I used that explains a little about this issue on psql via EnterpriseDB: Dave's Postgres Blog
But enough about psql; there are other things that I had to do googles for mid-lecture and that was for a way to change ruby versions that are installed on your computer. For Mac OSX, they used Chruby and rvm; for Windows, I found pik.
Pik mimics a lot of commands that rvm and chruby does - we haven't used it substantially, but I have it ready (and it's important to make sure it is). By default, when installed pik only works on command prompt, not git; and it goes back to finnagling one of the config files for git to get pik commands to work on it.
While it is possible to install pik using ruby gems, I did an install through the .msi file on pik's GitHub page. Again, it might be with how I installed my ruby (I installed x64 version of Ruby 2.0.0, but installing pik via the gem only gave me pik 0.2.8 whereas the latest version was 0.3), but at the end of the day, I had to edit my %PATH% environment variables to make sure pik properly worked. It's important to understand Environment_Variables on windows and making sure I knew my %PATH% and what it does so I can be sure that things can work (it's crucial in trying to make sure your PC functions when you install new programs through prompt, etc.)
I'll probably touch on pik and %PATH% a lot more when we actually start using rvm/chruby in class, however. But I got mine working to a point where I can change ruby versions.
That's about it for this post; however there are some very crucial pages I'm keeping tabs on. The first is a page for Windows and Unix equivalents ! It's pretty important. There's several terminal commands on UNIX based consoles referenced in class which are essentially synonyms for what Windows uses. It's a good cheat sheet to have and look through. The other is a linux emulator, Cygwin . I came across this while searching for ways to change ruby versions on windows and a post described using Cygwin to use rvm on a windows PC. I didn't really read into it, but it'll be a good thing to turn to in case I ever find something on UNIX that is not yet replicable in a Windows environment.
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