I just started reading Well-Grounded Rubyist.
That's a very good book. I consider it more of an intermediate level book than a beginner book, but no matter.
I've tried many different methods of trying to call the file,
including using
cd /Users/rexrose/Desktop/Rubycode/c2f
The cd command means "change directories" and you cannot change directories to a file. Instead, you have to change directories to the directory containing the file:
$ cd /Users/rexrose/Desktop/Rubycode
Then you can execute your program contained in the file c2f.rb like this:
$ ruby c2f.rb
Here are some Terminal tips:
1) You can use ~ instead of /Users/YourUserName, so you can save some typing by doing this:
$ cd ~/Desktop/Rubycode
Typing '~' instead of '/Users/YourUserName' will become second nature.
2) Using the cd command with no arguments:
$ cd
will take you to your home directory, i.e. /Users/YourUserName
3) You should change your prompt to indicate what directory you are currently in. To do that, create a file called .bash_profile in your home directory(/Users/YourUserName). Check to see if it exists first:
$ cd
$ ls -al
The command ls -al will show all the files in a directory, including hidden files, which are files whose name begins with a .. If a file named .bash_profile exists, open it; if it doesn't exist, create it. Put this in .bash_profile:
PS1="\w$ "
To get Terminal to recognize the changes, you can either Quit Terminal and relaunch it, or do this:
$ source .bash_profile
Then open a new Terminal widow.
You can also add 'aliases' to .bash_profile. For instance, in my .bash_profile I have the alias 'r' for 'ruby', so that I can execute a ruby program like this:
$ r my_program.rb
In .bash_profile you make an alias like this:
alias r="ruby"
4) Tab completion in Terminal:
You might have noticed that you can type part of a file name, then hit tab and Terminal will complete the file name. Using tab completion, I can execute my ruby program like this:
$ r my_pr<tab>
In fact, I name my practice ruby programs so that I can use tab completion to the greatest effect. I have files named 1.rb, 2.rb, 3.rb, and then I execute one of them by simply typing:
$ r 1<tab>
And in fact, you may not even have to type that! If you hit the up arrow key on your keyboard, Terminal will display the previous command, and if you hit the up arrow key again, you will see the command before that. So you can scroll up to a previous command, then hit return to execute it--without having to type anything.
You should endeavor to use tab completion for each of the file names in a path. For example, if you are cd'ing to /Users/YourUserName/dir1/dir2, you should do this:
$ cd /Use<tab>/YourUser<tab>/di<tab>/di<tab>
The reason you should use tab completion for each filename(by the way in Unix filename is a general term for both directory names and file names) is because when the name won't tab complete, then you are in the wrong directory or you are trying a filename that doesn't exist in that directory. So instead of having to type out the whole path '/Users/YourUserName/dir1/dir2' and then finding out about the error when you hit return, the tab completion will let you know immediately when there is an error(because the filename won't tab complete)--saving you some typing.
5) Because you will probably be using Terminal for mostly ruby programs for awhile, you can set up things so that Terminal will automatically open up in your directory Users/rexrose/Desktop/Rubycode. Put this in .bash_profile:
cd "/Users/rexrose/Desktop/Rubycode" (Here you cannot use ~)
6) Occasionally, you may have to type a long file name that exists on your computer into the command line:
$ cd /Library/SomeLongName/AnotherLongName34832o222/142582dir/some_file.txt
Instead of having to type all that at the command line, you can locate the file in Finder first. Then if you drag the file onto the Terminal window, the file name will be entered at the point of the cursor.
Finally, a better way to organize your files might be to put them in directories below your home directory, like this:
~$ mkdir ruby_programs
~$ cd ruby_programs
~/ruby_programs$ mate 1.rb
