In this installment, Part 2, we’re going to create a new database recipe. In Part1 MyFace is just a web application serving up a static page. Now we’re going to enhance MyFace so that it stores account information in a persistent MySQL database.

Out of the box, Ruby does not provide a mechanism to support multiple installed versions. Compounding this issue, the default system-installed version of Ruby for most versions of Linux/Mac OS X tend to be quite old. For example, even in the latest version of Mac OS X Mountain Lion, the system-wide version of Ruby is over five years old (ruby 1.8.7). Most developers prefer to use a newer version of Ruby installed in their home directory and to leave the default systemwide version of Ruby untouched.