Ruby vs Java Installation

In a windows environment, Ruby on Rails installation was very very easy thanks to the rails installer at http://railsinstaller.org/ You still need a text editor to write in, which shouldn't be a difficult installation.

For other environments it looks a lot more involved sine you need to install Git, Ruby, RubyGems, and Rails separately and also do a little configuration. And of course your text editor.

I wanted to install a similar Java product so I turned to Spring Roo. Roo requires the latest JDK as well as Maven. All three of these products require that you put a folder in the PATH variable, but really it isn't too difficult. I also want to install the SpringSource Tool Suite which has a lot of built-in functionality to work with Roo and other Spring products.

EDIT: The SpringSource Tool Suite(STS) also allows you to install Roo and Maven from that installer. It only asks for where the JDK is installed. Using the STS seems to be the easiest way to install the Java side.

Conclusion:

In a windows environment, the Rails Installer was much faster and easier than setting up Java and Spring Roo, but even that wasn't too difficult.