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.

I started writing some Ruby code this past weekend for a new project that I’m involved in. Rather than download an IDE mentioned in my previous article, I Want My IDE, I decided to use the gedit text editor that comes bundled with Ubuntu Linux.

Attempting to capture the experience Mac users get from using TextMate, I installed the Class Browser, File Browser Pane, Project Manager, Snap open, and Snippets plugins from live.gnome.org. I also enabled line numbers, current line highlighting, and bracket matching. It’s not quite TextMate, but it’s not a bad choice either.

I had initially stated that my top two needs of an IDE were Subversion (SVN) integration and code completion. I didn’t have either of these with gedit, but I didn’t find myself missing them either. I’ve grown accustomed to using SVN from the command-line and ruby-doc.org didn’t slow me down too much while looking up class definitions.

Overall I’m quite pleased, but I have to admit that installing gedit plugins was a bit tricky and I never did get my fonts to look like those found in the TextMate-like Gedit tutorial.

The majority of my academic and professional programming career has been spent writing code using an integrated development environment (IDE). I’ve dabbled with Eclipse, Microsoft Visual Studio, Macrodobe Dreamweaver, and various Borland products. Rather than juggle multiple text editors and source control consoles, I find it easier to stay organized using an IDE on large projects. When editing config files or writing scripts I prefer a lightweight text editor. In Linux, vi or gedit is my choice. Notepad2 is at the top of my Windows list.

A few months ago I decided to learn Ruby and the Ruby on Rails framework. I began with the obligatory Hello World program and quickly progressed through a series of tutorials using vi and gedit to get the job done. Since then, I’ve begun some larger projects and am quickly finding myself losing focus and missing the benefits of an IDE. Consulting Google, I compiled a list of prospective IDEs to begin my evaluation. I’m willing to give each of them a fair chance at becoming my Rails development environment, but have a few questions before I begin. What, if any, IDEs have I missed? How long should I try each one?

Needs (in order of importance):

1. Linux compatible
2. Project Browsing
3. SVN integration
4. Syntax Highlighting
5. Code Completion
6. Active Community
7. Unit Testing
8. Debugging
9. Auto-indent
10. Plugin support
11. Less than $100

The list:
*Each IDE/editor was capable of Project Browsing, Syntax Highlighting, and compatible with Linux.

1. Aptana RadRails
   Pros
   • Good SVN integration.
   • The latest Beta has working Code Completion.
   • Built on Eclipse.
   • More Rails features than Eclipse + DLTK.
   • Many plugins inherited from Eclipse
   • Free.
   Cons
   • Code Completion is broken in the current stable release.
   • Built on Eclipse.
2. Eclipse + DLTK
   Pros
   • SVN integration.
   • DLTK has Code Completion.
   • Tried and true.
   • Vast library of plugins.
   • Active community.
   • Free.
   Cons
   • Eclipse is slow and consumes a lot of memory.
3. FreeRIDE
   Pros
   • Auto-indenting.
   • Debugging.
   • Free.
   Cons
   • No SVN integration.
   • No Code Completion.
   • Performance could be an issue b/c it’s a native Ruby application.
4. gedit + plugins
   Pros
   • Lightweight.
   • Plugins.
   • Free.
   Cons
   • No SVN integration.
   • No Code Completion.
5. jEdit
   Pros
   • SVN integration.
   • Code Completion.
   • Plugins.
   • Free.
   Cons
   • Not user friendly.
6. IntelliJ IDEA 6.0
   Pros
   • SVN integration.
   • Code Completion.
   • Debugging.
   • Unit Testing.
   • Plugins.
   • Much more…
   Cons
   • $249.
7. Komodo IDE 4.1
   Pros
   • SVN integration.
   • Code Completion.
   • Debugging.
   • Built specifically for Ruby on Rails.
   • Much more…
   Cons
   • $295
8. Mondrian Ruby IDE
   Pros
   • Lightweight.
   • Free.
   Cons
   • No SVN integration.
   • No Code Completion.
   • Performance could be an issue b/c it’s a native Ruby application.
   • Spam in support forum.
9. NetBeans Beta 6.0 Milestone 10+
   Pros
   • SVN integration.
   • Code Completion.
   • Debugging.
   • Plugins.
   • Free.
   • Much more…
   Cons
   • Beta.
10. Ruby IDE from CodeGear
    Pros
    • CodeGear experience.
    Cons
    • Feature set not yet released.

I’ll be evaluating each of the IDEs/editors in turn and publishing my results as a series. Feel free to leave feedback and check back soon!