Paul’s jabber

I’ve just begun learning Ruby on Rails and like many others I started off with Instant Rails which includes a Ruby interpreter, Ruby on Rails, Apache and MySql in an all in one neatly wrapped up installer. There have been a few occasions when I have felt fortunate to be a Windows user and this was one of them i.e. I quickly browsed through the Rails installation guide for Mac and Linux users and … well … I recommend you leave your Saturday night/morning open, preferably between one and five am when you’re feeling a little like a zombie, simply in order to numb the pain … a shot of whiskey might help too.

Anyway, I generally lean towards using the command line as opposed to clicking away at some developer’s weak artistic attempt at creating something he/she is trying to pass off as a GUI. However, when it comes to actual coding I have to admit that I can’t do without an IDE and it is for this exact reason that I set out to find one for Rails. Learning a new language is challenging enough as it is without the added effort needed to remember all those darn commands in IRB (Interactive Ruby Console).

After having looked at several solutions I have finally found something that I am happy with and that is the NetBeans IDE 6.1, which now supports Ruby, as well as Ruby on Rails. It also comes with JRuby which is a Java implemented Ruby interpreter that allows two-way access between Java and Ruby code. More importantly according to the Wikipedia it also uses just-in-time compilation and ahead-of-time compilation. Alternatively, if you like, there is also an option to select your own Ruby interpreter to use within NetBeans instead. If you’re anything like me I’m sure you’ll agree that the best benefit of using an IDE is that you have IntelliSense with descriptions for all methods, types etc.

With that said, I hope you give Ruby a go (if you haven’t already). It should be alot of fun.