Some time ago I wrote about my search for the perfect Ruby IDE. I understand that the criteria for perfect is different for everyone, but in my previous article I outlined the eleven features that best describe my perfect Ruby IDE. I will admit that I haven’t kept up with my analysis. Like everyone else, I have a lot of other things to do and evaluating a dozen IDEs takes a lot of time. Apologies aside – I have found an IDE that fits all of my expectations. My search might be over.

Roman Strobl’s recently published article, NetBeans: Ruby Developer’s New Best Friend, highlights the features and improvements of NetBeans’ efforts in the Ruby IDE arena. I’m consistently amazed by the quality of writing published by InfoQ and Strobl’s work is a fine example. I recommend reading his article and then downloading the NetBeans Ruby IDE to test drive it yourself.

NetBean’s Ruby IDE has the best code completion I’ve found in a Ruby IDE. It rivals Visual Studio on the .NET platform. The IDE is lightweight. At no point during my testing did it ever slow down. Its source control integration works well. The default font is easy on the eyes and compliments the Ruby syntax highlighting scheme. My favorite feature is the garbage collection button located in the upper right-hand corner of the application. Some developers might think the application poorly designed for needing this feature, but coming from Visual Studio, I applaud it.

The NetBean’s Ruby IDE is still in development, but the testing I’ve done hasn’t uncovered any issues worth mentioning. While working on one of my side projects I haven’t noticed any appreciable difference between the Windows and Linux versions. Have I mentioned yet that the NetBean’s Ruby IDE is free? I’ve found my new daily driver. Kudos NetBeans!

Download it here.