Ruby IDE for Windows

[Tom Wardrop]

I've looked at quite a few IDE's (or editors) for Ruby on Windows, but
seem quite unimpressed by them. I've tried Netbeans, RadRails, IntelliJ,
Redcar and others. I'm yet to find an editor that does basic code
completion. For example, if I type a new line with the keyword "File." I
would expect to be prompted with all the methods provided by the File
class. It's this functionality which you expect from an IDE. Thus far,
all the IDE's I've tried have been little more than glorified syntax
highlighters; I may as well just use notepad++.

Can I ask what others are using to edit Ruby code on Windows?

 

[Alex Stahl]

That's odd... I'm running NetBeans 6.8 on Ubuntu, and it's got code
completion. I do have to wait a second or two for the list to pop up,
but when it does, it's got not just File's methods, but pretty much
every method available. How long did you try it for?

 

[Tom Wardrop]

I've just found that Netbeans does indeed have code completion, and it
seems quite good. I'm still open to suggestions.

 

[Walton Hoops]

I've looked at quite a few IDE's (or editors) for Ruby on Windows, but
seem quite unimpressed by them. I've tried Netbeans, RadRails, IntelliJ,
Redcar and others. I'm yet to find an editor that does basic code
completion. For example, if I type a new line with the keyword "File." I
would expect to be prompted with all the methods provided by the File
class. It's this functionality which you expect from an IDE. Thus far,
all the IDE's I've tried have been little more than glorified syntax
highlighters; I may as well just use notepad++.

Can I ask what others are using to edit Ruby code on Windows?

I'm afraid code completion for Ruby is pretty much out. Between dynamic
typing and meta-programming, its more or less impossible to statically
determine types, much less what methods happen to be available.
Netbeans and RubyMine, both make an attempt, but of course it's far from
perfect. Redcar also has the RSense plugin, which again, is far from
perfect. Redcar also uses TextMate snippets, which can make coding much
more pleasant.

Your best bet is to learn to use IRB and the documentation effectively.
While I can't imagine writing C# or Java without code completion, I've
found that in Ruby I really don't tend to miss it much.

For what it's worth, there is a summary of IDEs and features here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Al_hzYODcgxwdG9tUFhqcVVoUDVaLTlqT2YtNjV1N0E&hl=en
<https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Al_hzYODcgxwdG9tUFhqcVVoUDVaLTlqT2YtNjV1N0E&hl=en>
But none of these do true code completion.

 

[Luis Lavena]

I've looked at quite a few IDE's (or editors) for Ruby on Windows, but
seem quite unimpressed by them. I've tried Netbeans, RadRails, IntelliJ,
Redcar and others. I'm yet to find an editor that does basic code
completion. For example, if I type a new line with the keyword "File." I
would expect to be prompted with all the methods provided by the File
class. It's this functionality which you expect from an IDE. Thus far,
all the IDE's I've tried have been little more than glorified syntax
highlighters; I may as well just use notepad++.

Netbeans does what you're saying, also RubyMine.

Can I ask what others are using to edit Ruby code on Windows?

You can try Ruby In Stell IDE:

http://www.sapphiresteel.com/Products/Ruby-In-Steel/Ruby-In-Steel-Developer-Overview

Uses Visual Studio intellisence.

 

[Michel Demazure]

Can I ask what others are using to edit Ruby code on Windows?

I have been using NetBeans for three years now. I tried Rubymine, but
sticks to NetBeans, with two complaints/regrets : been blocked for
seconds while N. tries to deal with a stupid typing mistake and forbids
to correct it (this not beeing proper to N. as I understand), and not
having a Git feature (which is in favor of Rubymine).

Did not try IntelliJ, which I feel really too expansive.

All these editors are filled (bloated) with Rails features, it would be
nice to have downgraded versions for Ruby...

_md

 

[Jörg W Mittag]

I'm afraid code completion for Ruby is pretty much out.

Why? Other, much more dynamic languages have had that for more than 30
years. Why shouldn't that be possible for Ruby?

jwm

 

[Michael Brooks]

I've looked at quite a few IDE's (or editors) for Ruby on Windows, but
seem quite unimpressed by them. I've tried Netbeans, RadRails, IntelliJ,
Redcar and others. I'm yet to find an editor that does basic code
completion. For example, if I type a new line with the keyword "File." I
would expect to be prompted with all the methods provided by the File
class. It's this functionality which you expect from an IDE. Thus far,
all the IDE's I've tried have been little more than glorified syntax
highlighters; I may as well just use notepad++.

Can I ask what others are using to edit Ruby code on Windows?

Hello Tom:

Try JetBrains RubyMine. It just replaced my previous favorite, Embarcadero
TurboRuby (which also has a Rails version called 3rdRail), because the
Embarcadero products don't seem to be actively maintained anymore.

Michael

 

[Walton Hoops]

Why? Other, much more dynamic languages have had that for more than 30
years. Why shouldn't that be possible for Ruby?

jwm

I suppose it depends on what you mean by code completion. Since the OP
stated that Netbeans didn't do code completion, I assumed what we were
referring too is actually know that the object in question is of class
A, and here are all the methods one can call on an object of class A.=20
That's likewise what I would call true code completion.

The best Ruby IDEs can ever hope to do however, is what Netbeans +
others do, take their best guess as to what they think MIGHT be stored
in the object 'a' and present you with the methods they THINK are
available. Of course, it could turn out that 'a' isn't what Netbeans
thought it might be, has methods that Netbeans was unaware of, or
methods have been removed at run-time.

If you think about it it should be pretty clear, in a language with
eval, truly accurate static analysis for code completion can never be
complete, it's always a best-guess situation. Even if we were somehow
magically able to see what methods are defined on an object at a given
place in code, we still couldn't manage complete code completion,
because it's not unheard of for methods to be defined when called for
the first time via the magic of method_missing.

So I guess the point I'm trying to make is that what people coming from
other languages like Java tend to think of as code completion, that is,
I hit the '.' key and suddenly all the options that are available appear
in a nice little menu on my screen, isn't possible. Guessing is
possible, but in my experience, it's easier and more reliable to read
the docs or examine the object in IRB, than to wade through all of
Netbeans' or RubyMine's guesses.