Installing the Learn Gem and a Java Environment on Windows (version >= 8)

Step 1: Install Linux.

Just kidding. Below are step-by-step instructions for getting up and running, you crazy masochist.

1. Install Ruby (you'll need this to interact with the Learn platform)
   1. Download the Windows - Ruby 2.2 Rails Installer
   2. Run the installer. It should finish without a hitch.
   3. You can verify the installation by opening the newly installed Git Bash program.
   4. Be sure to add your SSH key (which should have been automatically copied to your clipboard) to your GitHub account.
   5. You can make sure that everything works by cloning this repo over SSH.
2. Set up your SSL certificates
   1. Open PowerShell (it should be installed on your system by default).
   2. Enter Invoke-WebRequest http://curl.haxx.se/ca/cacert.pem -OutFile C:\RailsInstaller\cacert.pem at the command prompt
   3. Update your environment variables
      1. Find the Environment Variables dialogue (it's somewhere under Control Panel, but you can also just search for it).
      2. Add a variable called SSL_CERT_FILE that points to C:\RailsInstaller\cacert.pem.
      3. Keep this dialogue open. You'll need it for a few more steps.
3. Install the appropriate JDK8 for your system.
   1. Add an environment variable (you did keep the dialogue open, right?) called JAVA_HOME that points to your installed JDK. (It should point to something like C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_74.)
   2. Edit your Path (or PATH) environment variable. This is a semicolon-separated list of locations where the command prompt will attempt to find executables. You'll want to add JAVA_HOME to the end: C:\path\already\set;%JAVA_HOME%.
4. Download and unzip Ant. (Just download the zip'd binary version.)
   1. Unzip the archive to a directory that you'll remember (maybe C:\Program Files\Ant).
   2. Add an environment variable called ANT_HOME that points to the unarchived directory.
   3. Edit your Path environment variable so that it includes %ANT_HOME%\bin.
5. Install learn-test
   1. Open up the Git Bash Terminal and type gem install learn-test. This is the tool that you will use to run the tests and submit work to the Learn Platform
   2. Now when you're ready to check the results of a lab, you can run learn-test from the lab's directory.

From here on out, whenever a lab or README asks you to open a terminal, you'll want to open Git Bash. You can just search for it using Windows' search feature and it should show up.

That's it! You should now be able to run learn-test in any of the labs and observe your progress on Learn.co. Happy coding!