Ruby and linux, preferred setup?

Question

Mac\'s have TextMate as there preferred application for ruby development, but what would be the preferred application for linux? I need something where it\'s easy to work wi

Answer 1

I use Vim on both Windows and Linux for development in Rails (we have to use Windows in work, and I only use Linux at home). The environment is almost exactly the same for both platforms. Especially important for me is easy navigation between the various Rails components - from Controllers to views, partials and models, and quick navigation to test files.

Here are the plugins I use:

• Vim Rails by Tim Pope. The :R, :A and gf commands are the ones I use mostly for navigation.
• NERDTree for a project/explorer view.
• NERDCommenter for easy multi-line commenting.
• FuzzyFinder and "FuzzyFinder - Textmate" - allows you to quickly find files based on portins of a file name.
• Ctags
• Bufexplorer
• dbext for executing SQL commands and getting the results in a Vim buffer.
• Ack and the ack plugin for a better grepping experience from within Vim.
• VividChalk colour scheme.

Answer 2

RubyMine from JetBrains.com works well for Mac/Linux/Windows, the price is 99$ but it's probably the most productive IDE for Ruby and Rails I have tested so far.

Answer 3

With Linux there are 3 really good IDEs and all are free. You have Eclipse, Netbeans, and Aptana... They are all very good and each have some benfits over the other, its more a matter of preference. I would suggest downloading all 3 and giving them a try to see which you prefer.

Answer 4

I have been using GMATE for a while and I can say that I only need gnome-terminal to complete my ruby/groovy/python setup. It have themes imported from textmate and do some method/property code completion (not much ok? but it comes handy).

Edit: forgot to say that GMATE is a set of plugins for Gedit (default text editor on gnome)

Answer 5

Why don't you just use Sublime Text 2 Text Editor, it is free and cross platform and lighter than any IDE, and then you can install the SublimeCodeIntel which will provide you with autocomplete features , you can do that through installing Package Control , then

 ⌘+shift+p → “install” → ENTER → “codeintel” → ENTER → Restart ST2

It is working perfectly with me and I'm totally in love with this smart editor .

You can find this helpful somehow if you wanna give it a try , http://www.rockettheme.com/magazine/1319-using-sublime-text-2-for-development

I'm using it with zsh Terminal http://stevelosh.com/blog/2010/02/my-extravagant-zsh-prompt/

Anyways if you are looking for a full IDE give netbeans a try http://netbeans.org/projects/ruby/

Answer 6

I prefer Aptana/RadRails on both Mac and Linux. It gives a consistent experience for me no matter what OS I'm on.

I still don't get the excitement over Textmate...