Tips and tricks for using emacs to develop a ruby on rails app

Question

What are the best modes, configuration settings, or anything that makes developing a ruby on rails app in emacs better.

Answer 1

Since I am new to rails (and emacs), I don't want to use rinari right away. I find that if a tool does too much magic for me I don't learn the details as quickly as I would like. I think I will use it eventually. For now, however, I set up a bunch of shells that I spawn in emacs for RAILS 3 and just switch between them to do my work. I prefix them with tmr so that I can easily find them.

   (defun tmr-spork-shell ()
      "Invoke spork shell" ; Spork - love that name
      (interactive)
      (pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create (generate-new-buffer-name "spork")))
      (shell (current-buffer))
      (process-send-string nil "cd .\n"); makes sure rvm variables set with .rvmrc
      (process-send-string nil "spork\n"))

    (defun tmr-devlog-shell ()
      "Tail the development log, shell"
      (interactive)
      (pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create (generate-new-buffer-name "devlog")))
      (shell (current-buffer))
      (process-send-string nil "cd .\n"); makes sure rvm variables set with .rvmrc
      (process-send-string nil "tail -f log/development.log\n"))

    (defun tmr-testlog-shell ()
      "Tail the test log, shell"
      (interactive)
      (pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create (generate-new-buffer-name "testlog")))
      (shell (current-buffer))
      (process-send-string nil "cd .\n"); makes sure rvm variables set with .rvmrc
      (process-send-string nil "tail -f log/test.log\n"))

    (defun tmr-server-shell ()
      "Invoke rails ui server shell"
      (interactive)
      (pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create (generate-new-buffer-name "server")))
      (shell (current-buffer))
      (process-send-string nil "cd .\n"); makes sure rvm variables set with .rvmrc
      (process-send-string nil "rails s\n"))

    (defun tmr-db-shell ()
      "Invoke rails dbconsole shell"
      (interactive)
      (pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create (generate-new-buffer-name "dbconsole")))
      (shell (current-buffer))
      (process-send-string nil "cd .\n"); makes sure rvm variables set with .rvmrc
      (process-send-string nil "rails dbconsole\n"))

    (defun tmr-console-shell ()
      "Invoke rails console shell"
      (interactive)
      (pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create (generate-new-buffer-name "console")))
      (shell (current-buffer))
      (process-send-string nil "cd .\n"); makes sure rvm variables set with .rvmrc
      (process-send-string nil "rails console\n"))

    ; I like to run all my tests in the same shell
    (defun tmr-rspec-shell ()
      "Invoke rspec shell"
      (interactive)
      (pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create (generate-new-buffer-name "rspec")))
      (shell (current-buffer))
      (process-send-string nil "cd .\n"); makes sure rvm variables set with .rvmrc
      (process-send-string nil "rspec spec\n")) ; This is debatable, since spork wont be up yet

    ; The shell where I do most of my work
    (defun tmr-shell ()
      "Invoke plain old shell"
      (interactive)
      (pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create (generate-new-buffer-name "sh")))
      (shell (current-buffer))
      (process-send-string nil "cd .\n")); makes sure rvm variables set with .rvmrc

    ; My everyday ide
    (defun tmr-ide-lite ()
      "Spawn several shells for a mini Rails IDE"
      (interactive)
      (progn (tmr-spork-shell)
             (tmr-shell)
             (tmr-server-shell)
             (tmr-rspec-shell)))

    ; When I am doing a big debug session
    (defun tmr-ide-full ()
      "Spawn several shells for a full Rails IDE"
      (interactive)
      (progn (tmr-spork-shell)
             (tmr-shell)
             (tmr-server-shell)
             (tmr-console-shell)
             (tmr-db-shell)
             (tmr-devlog-shell)
             (tmr-testlog-shell)
             (tmr-rspec-shell)))