Need help finding decent IDE/development environment for Windows

[Paul Dix]

I've just started playing around with ruby on rails and by association,
ruby itself. One of the things I've been trying to get set to my
liking is a decent development environment. I'm working in Windows and
I'm just not sure what set of tools will work decently (alternatively,
I'd develop in Linux if the tools are better there). Some of the
things I'm looking for:
- good syntax highlighting
- code completion
- auto indentation
- debugging
- tabbed view of open files
- project view or a folder view of files
- works for .rb and .rhtml files
- support for rails
I've spent a little time looking at the following options:
- EditPlus
- UltraEdit
- gvim
- SciTE
- jEdit
- ArachnoRuby
None of these seem to quite meet all those needs. Four main things I
can't seem to find together are:
- debugging
- support for rails
- code completion
- support for rhtml files
I read through and gave a brief try to debugging with breakpoint as
outlined here:
http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/show/HowtoDebugWithBreakpoint
I'm obviously too much of a ruby n00b at this point to make good use of
this.
I noticed some of these support basic code completion with the core
ruby language, but that's it.
I see that everone working on Mac loves TextMate but for me that just
isn't an option.
Does anyone have suggestions on what I should be looking at? Can you
give me very specific information about setup and tools? Any help
would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dennis Schridde]

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Am Mittwoch, 7. September 2005 16:21 schrieb Paul Dix:

I've just started playing around with ruby on rails and by association,
ruby itself. One of the things I've been trying to get set to my
liking is a decent development environment. I'm working in Windows and
I'm just not sure what set of tools will work decently (alternatively,
I'd develop in Linux if the tools are better there).

You could have a look at KDevelop(Linux/KDE,http://www.kdevelop.org/) or=20
Context(Windows,http://www.context.cx/)

KDevelop is a real IDE, with I think all of the mentioned features you want=
=20
and Context is more an advanced texteditor, with highlighting and such=20
things.

=2D- Dennis

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[gregarican]

Have you checked out Eclipse with the Ruby plug in? See
http://www.eclipse.org/main.html for details. Or how about Widestudio?
This IDE comes with Python, Perl and Ruby installations bundled within.
See http://www.widestudio.org/EE/wsinfo.html for details on it.

I haven't used these to a great extent but do have them loaded on my
Win2K development notebook. Check them out and let me know what you
think...

 

[Ivan Vodopiviz]

Hi, I'm aware of this ones:

RDE (GPL, coded in ruby)
http://homepage2.nifty.com/sakazuki/rde_e.html

Mondrian Ruby IDE (MIT?, also coded in ruby)
http://www.mondrian-ide.com/

Arachno Ruby IDE (commercial, starting at US$ 59)
http://www.ruby-ide.com

This one isn't Ruby-specific, but I use it from time to time (Freeware)
http://www.crimsoneditor.com
(Note about this one: it only applies ruby sintax highlighting to *.rb
files, NOT *.rbw. But this can be fixed by creating a new link file )

hope you find these links useful.=20
cya!

Am Mittwoch, 7. September 2005 16:21 schrieb Paul Dix:
You could have a look at KDevelop(Linux/KDE,http://www.kdevelop.org/) or
Context(Windows,http://www.context.cx/)
=20
KDevelop is a real IDE, with I think all of the mentioned features you wa= nt
and Context is more an advanced texteditor, with highlighting and such
things.
=20
-- Dennis
=20
=20
=20

--=20
BlueSteel | | Merkoth

 

[Rob .]

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Paul, jEdit + the Ruby Editor Plugin meets many of your needs:
- good syntax highlighting (yes)
- code completion (yes)
- auto indentation (yes)
- tabbed view of open files (yes)
- project view or a folder view of files (yes)
- works for .rb and .rhtml files (yes, I think with a bit of config work)
- debugging (no)
- support for rails (no) - what do you mean by this?

If you get hooked on unit tests as a better substitute for a debugger, then=
=20
jEdit's looking pretty good. I'm going to be restarting development on the=
=20
jEdit Ruby plugin soon. Feel free to drop me a line with what you think is=
=20
missing, you never know it may be there by the end of the year.
Rob
http://www.jedit.org/ruby/

=20
I've just started playing around with ruby on rails and by association,
ruby itself. One of the things I've been trying to get set to my
liking is a decent development environment. I'm working in Windows and
I'm just not sure what set of tools will work decently (alternatively,
I'd develop in Linux if the tools are better there). Some of the
things I'm looking for:
- good syntax highlighting
- code completion
- auto indentation
- debugging
- tabbed view of open files
- project view or a folder view of files
- works for .rb and .rhtml files
- support for rails
I've spent a little time looking at the following options:
- EditPlus
- UltraEdit
- gvim
- SciTE
- jEdit
- ArachnoRuby
None of these seem to quite meet all those needs. Four main things I
can't seem to find together are:
- debugging
- support for rails
- code completion
- support for rhtml files
I read through and gave a brief try to debugging with breakpoint as
outlined here:
http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/show/HowtoDebugWithBreakpoint
I'm obviously too much of a ruby n00b at this point to make good use of
this.
I noticed some of these support basic code completion with the core
ruby language, but that's it.
I see that everone working on Mac loves TextMate but for me that just
isn't an option.
Does anyone have suggestions on what I should be looking at? Can you
give me very specific information about setup and tools? Any help
would be greatly appreciated.

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[gregarican]

Or how about Widestudio?

I think I might have answered my own question I had yesterday to c.l.r
regarding Qt/Ruby/Windows support for an application I wanted to port
over from Qt/Ruby/Linux that I wrote for the Sharp Zaurus. I wasn't
aware that Widestudio's GUI toolkit can be cross-deployed on Windows as
well as Sharp Zaurus platforms. This was due to my ignorance since I
hadn't used it much.

Perhaps this IDE will help me release my application across the various
platforms in a smoother manner. Previously I was using qt-mt230nc.dll
with a Qt binary release for Ruby 1.6 on my Windows clients. This
wasn't the best solution since the Qt version was earlier than my
Zaurus clients (2.3.0 versus 2.3.2) and the Ruby version was as well
(1.6.8 versus 1.8.3).

 

[Joe Van Dyk]

I've just started playing around with ruby on rails and by association,
ruby itself. One of the things I've been trying to get set to my
liking is a decent development environment. I'm working in Windows and
I'm just not sure what set of tools will work decently (alternatively,
I'd develop in Linux if the tools are better there). Some of the
things I'm looking for:
- good syntax highlighting
- code completion
- auto indentation
- debugging
- tabbed view of open files
- project view or a folder view of files
- works for .rb and .rhtml files
- support for rails

vim does all that, except for debugging. I've never had to really
debug ruby much though (I sometimes use gdb if i have a problem with a
c extension).

 

[BearItAll]

I've just started playing around with ruby on rails and by association,
ruby itself. One of the things I've been trying to get set to my
liking is a decent development environment. I'm working in Windows and
I'm just not sure what set of tools will work decently (alternatively,
I'd develop in Linux if the tools are better there). Some of the
things I'm looking for:
- good syntax highlighting
- code completion
- auto indentation
- debugging
- tabbed view of open files
- project view or a folder view of files
- works for .rb and .rhtml files
- support for rails
I've spent a little time looking at the following options:
- EditPlus
- UltraEdit
- gvim
- SciTE
- jEdit
- ArachnoRuby
None of these seem to quite meet all those needs. Four main things I
can't seem to find together are:
- debugging
- support for rails
- code completion
- support for rhtml files
I read through and gave a brief try to debugging with breakpoint as
outlined here:
http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/show/HowtoDebugWithBreakpoint
I'm obviously too much of a ruby n00b at this point to make good use of
this.
I noticed some of these support basic code completion with the core
ruby language, but that's it.
I see that everone working on Mac loves TextMate but for me that just
isn't an option.
Does anyone have suggestions on what I should be looking at? Can you
give me very specific information about setup and tools? Any help
would be greatly appreciated.

I'm entirely a UNIX/Linux man so I may be a touch biased. But I have done
a lot of development work on MS Windows too.

IDE's generally are great if you are new to a language, and even if you
are not new pop ups giving you the params of the standard functions as
you type can be handy. But eventually all of that stuff simply will get in
your way.

I develop much faster using vi(m) (but substitute your own plain text
editor), a console for nipping about the project directory structure and a
browse window open if thats the sort of interface your using.

Then you write a function, save :w, test in the console or browser you
have open. Or if its a function/class you can test stand alone, then send
it directly to ruby/php or what ever. ':w !ruby' you can't get much more
immediate feedback than that. No opening and closing Windows or dialogues.

 

[Travis Smith]

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How do you do code completion with vim? I'd love that feature.=20

=20

=20
vim does all that, except for debugging. I've never had to really
debug ruby much though (I sometimes use gdb if i have a problem with a
c extension).
=20
=20

--=20
~Travis

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[gregarican]

IDE's generally are great if you are new to a language...But eventually all of that stuff

simply will get in your way.

True that! I found this to be the case with some of the Java IDE's that
were powerful and all encompassing, but eventually slowed me down for
many reasons. Using some of the windowing toolkit designers such as
GTK's, Qt's etc. is another story to me, since graphically designing my
GUI (rather than manually typing and running things to see how they
look) is a big plus.

 

[Joe Van Dyk]

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 07:17:24 -0700, Paul Dix wrote:
=20
=20
I'm entirely a UNIX/Linux man so I may be a touch biased. But I have done
a lot of development work on MS Windows too.
=20
IDE's generally are great if you are new to a language, and even if you
are not new pop ups giving you the params of the standard functions as
you type can be handy. But eventually all of that stuff simply will get i= n
your way.
=20
I develop much faster using vi(m) (but substitute your own plain text
editor), a console for nipping about the project directory structure and = a
browse window open if thats the sort of interface your using.
=20
Then you write a function, save :w, test in the console or browser you
have open. Or if its a function/class you can test stand alone, then send
it directly to ruby/php or what ever. ':w !ruby' you can't get much more
immediate feedback than that. No opening and closing Windows or dialogues=

 

[Joe Van Dyk]

I agree. I have tried to "sell" ruby at work, and all the Java
developers say "Where is the equivalent of JBuilder / Eclipse / NetBeans
etc"
I try to say there is an Eclipse plugin - but
a) It doesn't work in the latest Eclipse release
b) It seems very restricted in supplied functionality compare with what
is available in the Java perspective
c) Saying "I've got colour coded text in <editor name here>" just isn't
good enough, and can't be called an IDE. (Try www.PSPad.com for a good
free text editor though)
=20
I've downloaded ArachnoRuby - but it never seems to get finished - and
is pretty complex. Looks like it would have all the tools you would need
in it though - assuming it matures soon. (have to pay for it of course)
=20
Other things - like RDE and Mondrian just plain don't work from the
point & click installer. If it don't work on installation - what hope is
there of it working properly as a debugger.

You could ask them why they need all that IDE stuff for developing in Ruby.

 

[Joe Van Dyk]

uby.

Because they develop complex applications with many Classes, thousands
of lines of code and complex interactions. They probably also work on
multiple projects at once, swap between java, HTML, CSS, SQL, Javascript
and want an IDE to "just handle it" and be able to debug it. They like
refactoring support, integrated version control, 1 click deployment
across different servers etc etc. A text editor just can't cut it. (IMHO)

I do all the above (except debugging and Java) with just vim.=20
(assuming that unit tests are a substitute for refactoring)

 

[Edward Faulkner]

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uby.
Because they develop complex applications with many Classes, thousands=20
of lines of code and complex interactions.=20

You missed the key phrase: "in Ruby". What you're describing is a
typical project in Java or C++. =20

In Ruby, if your application is so large and complicated that you
can't easily navigate and understand it without a specialized IDE,
you're basically screwed.

Ruby gives you the power to achieve complicated things with a small
amount of very clean source code. But if you insist on treating it
like C++, all you'll end up with is a mess, and no IDE will save you.

cheers,
Ed

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[Florian Frank]

How do you do code completion with vim? I'd love that feature.

:help ins-completion

 

[Chris Game]

I've spent a little time looking at the following options:
- EditPlus
- UltraEdit
- gvim
- SciTE
- jEdit
- ArachnoRuby

What's wrong with this FreeRIDE thing that seems to come along with
the Windows one-click installer then? (I've not used it much, just
curious).

 

[Josh Charles]

What's wrong with this FreeRIDE thing that seems to come along with

the Windows one-click installer then? (I've not used it much, just
curious).

I've found FreeRIDE to be painfully slow - at least on windows. I've
not tried it on other platforms yet, however.

 

[Reid Thompson]

How do you do code completion with vim? I'd love that feature.

Me too ---

 

[Michael Vondung]

What's wrong with this FreeRIDE thing that seems to come along with
the Windows one-click installer then?

It's slow and unstable, at least on a WinXP platform. The lack of a mature,
feature-rich and free IDE for Windows is still one of Ruby's more
significant shortcomings, in my opinion.

M.

 

[jussij]

I'm working in Windows and I'm just not sure what set of tools

will work decently

You might want to take a look at the Zeus for Windows programmer's
editor:

http://www.zeusedit.com/features.html

- tabbed view of open files
- project view or a folder view of files

These come as standard.

- good syntax highlighting
- auto indentation

Zeus has auto indentation, code folding and syntax highlighting for
Ruby.

- code completion

The code completion is fully configurable so it may or may not be
possible to make it work for Ruby.

For example this is how C#/Mono code completion is configured:

http://www.zeusedit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=211

and here is the Microsoft MFC code completion is configured details:

http://www.zeusedit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=185

But if you find that it does not work for Ruby feel free to raise a bug
report.

- works for .rb and .rhtml files
- support for rails

Zeus if highly configurable so it should be possible to do this.

- debugging

Zeus does have limited debugging support but it is definitely not one
of it's strong points

Does anyone have suggestions on what I should be looking at?

One thing to note is Zeus by designed is language neutral meaning it
does not favour any one particular language.

It see no reason why it should not be possible to configure Zeus for
Ruby, but don't expect to find all these features "out of the box", so
to speak.

Note: Zeus is shareware (45 day trial).

Jussi Jumppanen
Author: Zeus for Windows