ED for Windows IDE released with comprehensive Ruby support

Ruby
1

Folks here on the forum have been very helpful this past month with
helping me work through nitty-gritty Ruby issues in relation to syntax
highlighting etc. for our ED for Windows IDE. I finally released ED
V4.30 last week, which I feel delivers more accurate and comprehensive
support for Ruby than other editors, at least those I looked at.

You can quickly get a good overview of what ED offers to Ruby developers
by reading “Write Ruby code faster with ED for Windows”
http://blog.surfulater.com/2007/02/21/write-ruby-code-faster-with-ed-for-windows/
This also includes a short critique on Ruby.

ED4W is a full featured Programmer’s Editor/IDE with support for 30+
languages. It includes all of the editing capabilities you would expect
plus a built-in Source Database Engine that tracks every class, method,
module, struct etc. in real time enabling you to instantly jump to any
function etc. and making navigation of large complex code bases much
easier.

ED4W can be downloaded from:
http://www.getsoft.com/download_trial_version.html

The ED Web site is at http://www.getsoft.com I suggest you start with
the Blog post though.

I’m particularly interested in feedback on the new Ruby capabilities in
this release of ED, either on the blog or here.

Neville F., author of ED for Windows and Surfulater.

2

It looks pretty nice, congrats!

Now that I work on a Mac, I’m not really in the market anymore, but if
I might offer a suggestion?

I want an editor with good syntax highlighting, color themes, and
snippet support, in that order. I don’t see alternative color themes
mentioned anywhere on your website. It’s just anecdotal, but I haven’t
seen anyone use textmate with any of the “dark on light” themes, so
I’ve always found it puzzling that most Windows editors make you jump
through hoops, picking each and every individual color to get a decent
“light on dark” environment.

There are several editors on Windows that have decent syntax-
highlighting, but not a single one (that I found) that makes getting a
decent light-on-dark color theme going anywhere near as painless as
TextMate. So for me, that was the number 1 selling point. Maybe some
people consider that stupid, or just don’t mind configuring the colors
individually, but from my perspective it seems a woefully
underserviced area in Windows editors, and someone is bound to make a
killing in the market someday if they get that right. You just can’t
differentiate on technical wins, you have to make the interface
something people don’t mind staring at for 8+ hours a day.

3

Thanks for the reply. ED has user defined color schemes along with a
wide range of syntax elements whose colors you can control. It comes
with a selection of color schemes and these can be cloned to create your
own. Of course it also meets and far exceeds your other requirements.

I’ve just put up this screen shot:
http://www.getsoft.com/images/ed_colorsetup.jpg which shows the “light
on dark” color scheme that’s included in the ED install.

I completely agree with your comment “you have to make the interface
something people don’t mind staring at for 8+ hours a day.” But you also
need the functionality to go with it that makes coding quicker and
easier.

Neville F., http://www.getsoft.com

Sam S. wrote:

It looks pretty nice, congrats!

Now that I work on a Mac, I’m not really in the market anymore, but if
I might offer a suggestion?

I want an editor with good syntax highlighting, color themes, and
snippet support, in that order. I don’t see alternative color themes
mentioned anywhere on your website. It’s just anecdotal, but I haven’t
seen anyone use textmate with any of the “dark on light” themes, so
I’ve always found it puzzling that most Windows editors make you jump
through hoops, picking each and every individual color to get a decent
“light on dark” environment.

There are several editors on Windows that have decent syntax-
highlighting, but not a single one (that I found) that makes getting a
decent light-on-dark color theme going anywhere near as painless as
TextMate. So for me, that was the number 1 selling point. Maybe some
people consider that stupid, or just don’t mind configuring the colors
individually, but from my perspective it seems a woefully
underserviced area in Windows editors, and someone is bound to make a
killing in the market someday if they get that right. You just can’t
differentiate on technical wins, you have to make the interface
something people don’t mind staring at for 8+ hours a day.

4

Yes … and it should be free, 100 percent compatible with Visual Studio
and all the other Microsoft development tools, and not infringe on
anyone’s intellectual property. :slight_smile:

I think you’ve just described…

http://www.sapphiresteel.com/Ruby-In-Steel-PE-free-edition-1

:wink:

best wishes
Huw C.

http://www.sapphiresteel.com
Ruby P.ming In Visual Studio 2005

5

Neville F. wrote:

something people don’t mind staring at for 8+ hours a day." But you also

Now that I work on a Mac, I’m not really in the market anymore, but if
There are several editors on Windows that have decent syntax-
highlighting, but not a single one (that I found) that makes getting a
decent light-on-dark color theme going anywhere near as painless as
TextMate. So for me, that was the number 1 selling point. Maybe some
people consider that stupid, or just don’t mind configuring the colors
individually, but from my perspective it seems a woefully
underserviced area in Windows editors, and someone is bound to make a
killing in the market someday if they get that right. You just can’t
differentiate on technical wins, you have to make the interface
something people don’t mind staring at for 8+ hours a day.

Yes … and it should be free, 100 percent compatible with Visual Studio
and all the other Microsoft development tools, and not infringe on
anyone’s intellectual property. :slight_smile:

–
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, FBG, AB, PTA, PGS, MS, MNLP, NST, ACMC(P)
http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/

If God had meant for carrots to be eaten cooked, He would have given
rabbits fire.

6

On Feb 26, 5:47 pm, Neville F. [email protected] wrote:

need the functionality to go with it that makes coding quicker and

I might offer a suggestion?
highlighting, but not a single one (that I found) that makes getting a
Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.
Definitely looks like you’ve done it right! I almost feel bad about
not using Windows now…almost. :slight_smile: