--- title: Requirements in_menu: true sort_info: 20 --- JLDrill Requirements ==================== Important Note: --------------- JLDrill is easiest to install on a GNU/Linux system using Debian based packages (for example Debian or Ubuntu). If you have such a system, you can skip this section and move to the [Install](Install.html) section. Otherwise read on. What to Install --------------- JLDrill is written in Ruby and uses GTK2 as it's GUI toolkit. You will need to install the following before installing JLDrill. * Ruby 1.8 (Version 1.8.7 or higher) OR Ruby 1.9 * rubygems * GTK+ 2.6 or higher * Ruby-Gnome2 0.16 or higher JLDrill has been developed and tested on GNU/Linux (Ubuntu). It should work on any platform that supports Ruby, Gtk and Ruby-Gnome (including Windows and Apple-Macintosh). Installing the Requirements --------------------------- There are different requirements depending on the system you use. ###GNU/Linux, BSD, Unix-like, etc The easiest way to install the prerequisites is to find the packages for your distribution. I have tested everything with the packages available from Debian and Ubuntu. You currently have 2 options for installing JLDrill from packages. The first is using a debian package install. If you are doing this then there is nothing you need to prepare. The second option is install using gems. If you are doing this then you must install Ruby and Ruby gems. Note that the Debian packages and gem packages are not compatible. Specifically, if you install ruby-gnome2 from the Debian packages, you can not install jldrill from the gem packages. This is unfortunate but there is nothing I can do about it. If you'd rather roll your own solution for installation, You can find Ruby at the [main Ruby website](http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/). Please note: The gnome-gtk bindings do *not* work with Ruby 1.9. You will have to install Ruby 1.8. Now you need to install RubyGems. You can find documentation on doing that at the [RubyGems website](http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/3). GTK+ 2.6 can be obtained at the [GTK+ website](http://www.gtk.org/) Finally, you will probably want to follow the [Ruby-Gnome2 install guides](http://ruby-gnome2.sourceforge.jp/hiki.cgi?Install+Guide) However if you have a C complier (gcc) and all the development files for GTK+ (libgtk2.0-dev on Debian based systems), the easiest way to install the ruby-gtk libraries is to use gem. With an active internet connect, just type: gem install gtk as the root user (or use "sudo gem install gtk"). Please see the Download/Install section for details on obtaining and installing JLDrill ###Windows The installation of the requirements for Windows is not very complicated. Unfortunately they are rather large downloads and install a lot of things that you won't need just to run JLDrill. If demand warrants, I will make a more streamlined package for Windows. Please contact me if you are using JLDrill on Windows. The best place to get Ruby is the official Ruby website. You must install [Ruby version 1.8.7](http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/72085/rubyinstaller-1.8.7-p302.exe). Note that you must use verion 1.8.7 or higher. 1.9 versions should also work. You are now ready to install JLDrill. For the next step you will need an internet connection, though. Please see the [Download/Install](Install.html) section for details on obtaining and installing JLDrill. ###Mac OSX I've seen quite a few robot-sites proclaim JLDrill as software for the Macintosh. I need to be very clear -- It is not officially supported on that platform because I don't have one. Having said that, it should work. It should be possible to install JLDrill on a Macintosh using the gem packages, and tell me if it works. Unfortunately JLDrill requires Ruby 1.8.7. From the Ruby website it seems that only 1.8.6 is officially supported, and 1.8.2 is included in Tiger. This may mean that JLDrill is impossible to install at this time. I will try to get more information some time. Assuming you can get Ruby 1.8.7 installed, you must also install Gnome. This is apparently available at [MacPorts](http://www.macports.org/) but I am afraid I don't know the details. Finally, you should be able to simply go to the instructions for installing the jldrill gems. It will build ruby-gnome2 in the process. If you manage to do this, please contact me so I can put better instructions here.