# Development Environment **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 8, 2006, 6:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/development-environment/57232 "2006-04-08T06:54:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zimro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/dbc845/32.png) [@zimro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zimro)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 6:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/development-environment/57232/1 "2006-04-08T06:54:54Z")
I want to be able to code my rails apps either on my Desktop mac or my Powerbook using textmate. I want to build a Debian server that runs lighttpd, rails and mysql. Would I use samba on the server and access the files that way through TextMate or is there something else that folks use? and should I use subversion and if so, how would I do that in the scanario I’m describing. Basically I’m not wanting any web servers, db servers etc on the powerbook or desktop just a copy of textmate and then access the source on the server. Any help or tips appreciated. Rob ---
**Author:** ![zimro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/dbc845/32.png) [@zimro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zimro)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 8:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/development-environment/57232/2 "2006-04-08T08:04:00Z")
Wrong approach. I don’t like to be so dismissive, but really, for Rails, it is. Develop locally, with a lightweight db (MySQL is plenty), and use the tiny built-in webserver that comes with Rails whether it’s WEBrick or the minimal lighttpd that comes with some all-in-one installers. Work with local files checked out of Subversion or other version control. It’s much, much, much easier than working with remote files and a remote development webserver. Rails was designed for this from the ground up. 1. Start developing locally on your laptop. No remote files or servers at all. 2. Set up a Subversion repository. 3. Import your code into it. 4. Check it back out into a new directory. Make this your new working directory. 5. Check it out on your desktop, too. 6. Develop on either machine. As long as you upload your changes and pull them down when you switch machines, you’re always working on your latest code and never have to worry about Samba outages, network glitches, etc. Subversion gets you version control, a revision history, the ability to look at your changes, roll things back, and develop on your laptop even without a net connection. You can work anywhere and sync up your changes when you choose and unlike the last 12 years of freely-available web development environments, in Rails it’s easier to do this than it is to work with the proverbial Samba file share or (S)FTP directory. Since you’d be working with local copies on both development machines, your work won’t be disrupted by intermittent server or net outages that can make working with a remote file share pretty awful. Working directly on unversioned files on a file server is so 1995. The only thing worse would be working remotely on unversioned files that are simultaneously being served live by the public webserver. Once you’ve used decent version control that integrates with your IDE or editor, you won’t ever want to develop with folders of unversioned files again. A couple of days of developing with a free trial hosted subversion repository sold me on it, and I installed it on my server. Besides, when your app gets to the point where you want to deploy it to a public server, Capistrano makes civilized deployment directly from version control _easier_ than dragging a folder to an SFTP window. With a half-hour of configuration and tweaking, I got Capistrano deploying my app, updating the db schema, setting permissions and restarting FCGI and Apache with one command. I’d put a Subversion repository on a 24/7 remote server, whether it’s your theoretical dedicated Debian box (which is probably overkill and too much admin work until your app’s traffic justifies it), or shared hosting or preferably a VPS account, which gets you the flexibility and feel of a dedicated box without a lot of the hassle and expense. Some hosting plans include preconfigured Subversion repositories nowadays, and there are also dedicated hosted Subversion services which make it super easy… though if you’re comfortable with installing and configuring Apache with extra modules, you won’t find setting up Subversion yourself against Apache difficult and then you don’t have significant limits on the number of projects you host or the size of your repository. P.S., if you’re already running Apache 2.0.x for the sake of Subversion, you can also install FCGI on it and you won’t really need to bother with lighttpd at all unless you’re curious. Apache+FCGI performs fine. N.B. Apache 2.1 and 2.2 are currently more difficult to get FCGI working on in many cases. Robert Z. wrote: > I want to be able to code my rails apps either on my Desktop mac or > my Powerbook using textmate. > > I want to build a Debian server that runs lighttpd, rails and mysql. > > Would I use samba on the server and access the files that way through > TextMate or is there something else that folks use? and should I > use subversion and if so, how would I do that in the scanario I’m > describing. > > Basically I’m not wanting any web servers, db servers etc on the > powerbook or desktop just a copy of textmate and then access the > source on the server. > > Any help or tips appreciated. > > Rob ---
**Author:** ![zimro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/dbc845/32.png) [@zimro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zimro)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 8:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/development-environment/57232/3 "2006-04-08T08:07:35Z")
On Apr 7, 2006, at 9:53 PM, Robert Z. wrote: > Basically I’m not wanting any web servers, db servers etc on the > powerbook or desktop just a copy of textmate and then access the > source on the server. This is _really_ not the way to go, IMHO. User version control. Create a local development environment. Nothing is better than writing some Rails code on your PowerBook with no WiFi access. – – Tom M. ---
**Author:** ![zimro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/dbc845/32.png) [@zimro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zimro)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 8:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/development-environment/57232/4 "2006-04-08T08:31:54Z")
thanks. Good tips. I’ll give this a try. ---
**Author:** ![zimro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/dbc845/32.png) [@zimro](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zimro)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 8:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/development-environment/57232/5 "2006-04-08T08:50:03Z")
Hello Robert, 2006/4/8, Robert Z. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > thanks. Good tips. I’ll give this a try. To put your application under version control, I would suggest reading the primer I wrote: [http://blog.teksol.info/articles/2006/03/09/subversion-primer-for-rails-projects](http://blog.teksol.info/articles/2006/03/09/subversion-primer-for-rails-projects) Bye !