# Is CodeGear's 3rdRail dead or dormant?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-codegears-3rdrail-dead-or-dormant/148508>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 13, 2008, 9:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-codegears-3rdrail-dead-or-dormant/148508 "2008-09-13T21:11:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![roschler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@roschler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/roschler)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2008, 9:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-codegears-3rdrail-dead-or-dormant/148508/1 "2008-09-13T21:11:32Z")

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Hello everyone,

I have to decide whether or not to re-up my subscription to Codegear/  
3rdRail. I bought a fully licensed copy back in Sep/2007 and the  
subscription is nearly up. I know it this may sound funny but I  
finally got the chance to sit down and start learning it this week  
despite the fact I bought it nearly a year ago. Much to my shock,  
when I went to the official support forum on the Embarcodero  
Technologies site (they bought the 3rdRail group out) there were a  
total of 2 threads posted in the 3rdRail section. The only other  
forum I could find was on CodeVerge and that one doesn’t have any  
messages after March 2008. I’m used to seeing literally hundreds of  
threads and messages on an active developer’s board.

So am I wasting my time with 3rdRail? I am a long time fan of  
Borland’s IDE products which is where 3rdRail began (Borland), and I  
paid for a full version, but if it’s a dead horse that could actually  
get in the way of finding contract work once I’m up to speed, I need  
to know now.

If it is dead, please post the most popular IDE tools that people are  
using and that are being requested for in Rails/Help Wanted requests  
or a link to a web page or article that delineates them. If 3rdRail  
is not, please post the URL of a forum or group where I can find a  
healthy level of discourse activity

Thanks,  
Robert

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![roschler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@roschler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/roschler)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-codegears-3rdrail-dead-or-dormant/148508/2 "2008-09-13T21:41:25Z")

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On Sep 14, 3:01 am, roschler [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> forum I could find was on CodeVerge and that one doesn’t have any  
> using and that are being requested for in Rails/Help Wanted requests  
> or a link to a web page or article that delineates them. If 3rdRail  
> is not, please post the URL of a forum or group where I can find a  
> healthy level of discourse activity
> 
> Thanks,  
> Robert

You’ll probably be better off with Netbeans, RadRails or Komodo.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![roschler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@roschler](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/roschler)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2008, 9:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-codegears-3rdrail-dead-or-dormant/148508/3 "2008-09-13T21:53:29Z")

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roschler wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> 
> please post the most popular IDE tools that people are  
> using and that are being requested for in Rails/Help Wanted requests  
> or a link to a web page or article that delineates them. If 3rdRail  
> is not, please post the URL of a forum or group where I can find a  
> healthy level of discourse activity

If you have come from a Delphi background, you might appreciate the  
drag+drop designer of our IDE, Ruby In Steel. Naturally we also do  
IntelliSense, fast debugging and all the rest 😉

I was a long-time Delphi programmer myself (for 10 years I was the  
Delphi columnist for PC Plus magazine in the UK) and so integrated  
visual design was one of my personal priorities when we began work on  
Ruby In Steel. You can get a flavour of this on the web site:

[http://www.sapphiresteel.com/GUI-Drag-and-Drop-Development-For](http://www.sapphiresteel.com/GUI-Drag-and-Drop-Development-For)

Note that, Ruby In Steel is fully integrated into Visual Studio. If you  
aren’t already a Visual Studio user, we also supply a complete  
all-in-one version of Ruby In Steel with Visual Studio 2008 (Ruby  
language only) at no additional cost. Try it out. The free trial lasts  
for 60 days:

[http://www.sapphiresteel.com/spip?page=download](http://www.sapphiresteel.com/spip?page=download)

And please feel free to drop in on the forum and ask any questions you  
may have. Our forum is pretty active:

[http://www.sapphiresteel.com/forum/](http://www.sapphiresteel.com/forum/)

best wishes  
Huw C.

SapphireSteel Software  
Ruby and Rails In Visual Studio  
[http://www.sapphiresteel.com](http://www.sapphiresteel.com)