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RubySoftware

Instructions for using Eclipse to write and run Ruby programs in the Moore 100B lab are here.

For your home installs, you need: Ruby, Rails, an SQL server, a Rails server, and a plain text editor (not MSWord!) or an IDE.

Modern text editors (of which there are many) will do syntax highlighting, automatic indentation, and may even execute your program for you. I like an editor that lists open files in a sidebar rather than in tabs (because Rails uses a lot of files). Sure, you can do stone-age computing with MS Notepad, but don't you want all those features that good programmers use?

I suggest some text editors below, and you might want to look at Ruby Editors by Tim Kuntz for some other suggestions.

Windows

All you really need is InstantRails. This download contains Ruby, Rails, a database (MySQL), two web servers (WEBrick and Mongrel), and a text editor (SciTE). Instant Rails is installed in Moore 100B under c:\user\InstantRails.

Windows text editors:

• The freeware text editor SciTE come with InstantRails (hence it is installed in Moore 100B); find it in InstantRails\ruby\scite. It does syntax coloring and executes your code.
• I really like the freeware text editor jEdit, which does syntax coloring when it has the jEdit plugin for Ruby syntax coloring: http://rubyjedit.org/download/. jEdit is installed in Moore 100B.
• TextPad is quite a nice general-purpose, shareware text editor that puts open files in a sidebar.
• The freeware text editor ConTEXT does syntax coloring.
• I've recently found Notepad++; it has plenty of features, and makes other text editors seem really slow by comparison.

How to Update Ruby's SOAP Library in Instant Rails

Mac OS X

You already have Ruby installed, but it may be an older version. You can get the latest version at http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/.

Locomotive is a fairly good alternative to InstantRails; includes everything except MySQL, which should be installed first.

Mac text editors:

• The shareware text editor TextMate is the undisputed ruler for Ruby/Rails work. It puts files in a sidebar if you open them as a "project," does syntax coloring, and is full of speed features. Unfortunately it's shareware, and you can use it free for only 30 days.
• The freeware text editor TextWrangler handles multiple files well, and does syntax coloring.

Platform-independent IDEs and text editors

The following are complete IDEs:

• Aptana Available as both an Eclipse plugin and a stand alone product, Aptana is a new Web development IDE that offers not only an Eclipse style development setting for varied web projects but also has debuggers for Ruby and JavaScript.
• Eclipse (download the Ruby plugin, RDT, separately). Instructions for using Eclipse to write and run Ruby programs in the Moore 100B lab are here.
• NetBeans 6.0 Preview M9, which includes JRuby. However, it's unusuably slow on my older Mac.
• RadRails is available in two forms:
  • As a plugin to Eclipse.
  • As a standalone IDE (basically, a slimmed-down version of Eclipse).
• I've just learned about Aptana, which can be used either as a stand-alone IDE or as an Eclipse plugin.

(All these IDEs are platform-independent.)

These text editors are "nearly" IDEs:

• jEdit is free, platform-independent, does syntax coloring, and is okay at handling a large number of files; use its Plugin Manager to get the Ruby plugin.
• SciTE comes bundled with InstantRails, but is also available for Mac.
• Ruby Emacs plugins are available in the current ruby source distribution. Or another simple instructions

This page last modified on August 10, 2007, at 11:13 AM