# Some questions about serious Ruby development **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [July 11, 2006, 11:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914 "2006-07-11T11:58:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 11:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/1 "2006-07-11T11:58:10Z")
I like Ruby. I like it more than Python. It’s my PERL replacement. I used to use PERL for automated file management but I have switched to Ruby because it is awesome and PERL blows. To be fair, I thought PERL was awesome at the time but it’s old news, now… ``` So, here I come, Ruby! I'm starting to think that I can use Ruby for some serious software ``` development. I think a hardcore application can be written in a careful combination of Ruby and C++ (and some other stuff, too!). So, I did a bit of looking around which has only caused me to develop some questions… ``` Can anyone recommend a good IDE? Ah, the tired IDE question... I ``` did a search on groups.google on this subject and, yes, it is a common question. However, every instance of it seems to have the same theme. Vi(m) is the greatest text editor out there (I found Emacs too hard to learn). Syntax highlighting is highly overrated and auto-completion is useless. What I need from an IDE is a debugger! Even if it were as simple as the ability to place breakpoints, step into and over lines of code, display evaluation results (like what IRB does), and list variables in scope. It would also be nice if it would let me evaluate methods of variables in scope, so I can try to get the state of various objects. Seriously, I’m tired of printf debugging (not that anyone uses printf in Ruby)… ``` Can anyone recommend a good... I don't know the proper term for this ``` but… a GUI toolkit? A widget toolkit? Something that allows me to create and manage windows and widgets to put in those windows. I’ll need the ability to create new (custom) widgets and it would be nice if it were cross platform… ``` Well, those are my questions, for now. I'll certainly be back if I ``` have any more and I will, of course, continue to lurk here as well as answer the few questions I think I can answer competently! I’m really excited about doing some serious Ruby development and I look forward to whatever suggestions I get! Thank you for your help… ---
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 12:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/2 "2006-07-11T12:40:45Z")
> What I need from an IDE is a debugger! Even if it were as simple as the > ability to place breakpoints, step into and over lines of code, display > evaluation results (like what IRB does), and list variables in scope. You don’t say if you have Visual Studio. If so, you can try out our Ruby In Steel IDE. This has breakpoints, watch variables, locals, autos, step into/over, run to, evaluate in a command window, syntax error location plus code colouring/collapsing, Rails development tools etc. Not yet IntelliSense but we are working on that at the moment… Download the latest here: [http://www.sapphiresteel.com](http://www.sapphiresteel.com) best wishes Huw C. ---
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/3 "2006-07-11T14:34:16Z")
On Jul 11, 2006, at 5:55 AM, Just Another Victim of the Ambient Morality wrote: > need from an IDE is a debugger! Even if it were as simple as the > ability to > place breakpoints, step into and over lines of code, display > evaluation > results (like what IRB does), and list variables in scope. It > would also be > nice if it would let me evaluate methods of variables in scope, so > I can try > to get the state of various objects. Seriously, I’m tired of printf > debugging (not that anyone uses printf in Ruby)… Just to take things in a whole different direction, are you using test driven development? I’ve found that TDD has eliminated a lot of my need for debugging. It’s a little like that printf debugging except that the printf’s become asserts and you don’t have to throw them away. They stay useful. That being said, Eclipse’s RDT is supposed to handle debugging, but I haven’t had much luck with it so far. -Mat ---
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/4 "2006-07-11T14:44:18Z")
On 7/11/06, Just Another Victim of the Ambient M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Syntax highlighting is highly overrated and auto-completion is useless. > What I need from an IDE is a debugger! Even if it were as simple as the ability to > place breakpoints, step into and over lines of code, display evaluation > results (like what IRB does), and list variables in scope. It would also be > nice if it would let me evaluate methods of variables in scope, so I can try > to get the state of various objects. Seriously, I’m tired of printf > debugging (not that anyone uses printf in Ruby)… Two suggestions, check out the breakpoint gem – it is pretty much what you say you want from a debugger. If what you really want is a full IDE with a good integrated debugger, then you should check out ArachnoEdit ([ruby-ide.com](http://ruby-ide.com)). It is a commercial product, still in beta that seems to get developed in a series of sprints. It has a custom version of Ruby with a C extension for much faster debugging/stepping. > ``` > Can anyone recommend a good... I don't know the proper term for this > > ``` > > but… a GUI toolkit? Check the archive, we _just_ had this discussion: FXRuby, QtRuby, wxRuby seem to be the primary choices. pth ---
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 3:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/5 "2006-07-11T15:18:44Z")
“Just Another Victim of the Ambient M.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes: > What I > need from an IDE is a debugger! > ArachnoRuby dot. Have a nice day Friedrich ---
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 5:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/6 "2006-07-11T17:52:27Z")
Just Another Victim of the Ambient M. wrote: > display evaluation results (like what IRB does) I use the following method to do that: def describe code # takes a string to be eval’ed and prints it along with showing the return value sep = ’ =\> ’ begin result = eval(code) puts code + sep + result.inspect return result rescue Exception =\> e puts code + sep + e.to\_s return nil end end I then can issue the following to get a nice printout, and also get the returned value of the statement. Example: my\_array = describe “Range.new(1, 5).to\_a” Would output “Range.new(1, 5).to\_a =\> [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]” and also assign my\_array properly. ---
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/7 "2006-07-11T19:07:35Z")
John wrote: > def describe code > > # takes a string to be eval’ed and prints it along > > # with showing the return value > > sep = ’ =\> ’ > begin > result = eval(code) > puts code + sep + result.inspect > return result > rescue Exception =\> e > puts code + sep + e.to\_s > return nil > end > end Hi John, You can write than method even more terse: def describe code sep = ’ =\> ’ result = eval(code) puts code + sep + result.inspect return result rescue Exception =\> e puts code + sep + e.to\_s # puts already returns nil end Cheers, Daniel ---
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/8 "2006-07-11T20:46:51Z")
Daniel S. wrote: > > ``` > > puts code + sep + e.to_s > > > > ``` > > ``` > result = eval(code) > puts code + sep + result.inspect > return result > > ``` > > rescue Exception =\> e > puts code + sep + e.to\_s > # puts already returns nil > end or perhaps even def describe code out = eval(code).inspect rescue Exception =\> e out = e.to\_s; nil ensure puts code + " =\> " + out end Cheers, Daniel ---
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 4:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/9 "2006-07-12T04:23:15Z")
Just Another Victim of the Ambient M. wrote: > ``` > Can anyone recommend a good IDE? > > ``` Check out xmp for vim for code evaluation and annotation: [http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?Enhanced+xmp+code+evaluation+and+annotation](http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?Enhanced+xmp+code+evaluation+and+annotation) And the breakpoint library (ask Google where it is). > ``` > Can anyone recommend a good... I don't know the proper term for this > > ``` > > but… a GUI toolkit? If you’ve used TK with Perl, you can use your existing TK knowledge with Ruby, too. Cheers, Dave ---
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 5:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/10 "2006-07-13T05:55:34Z")
On Jul 11, 2006, at 2:45 PM, Daniel S. wrote: > > > rescue Exception =\> e > > > return result > > > out = e.to\_s; nil > > > ensure > > > puts code + " =\> " + out > > > end > > Cheers, > Daniel def describe code require ‘xmp’ xmp code end I cheated though ---
**Author:** ![maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/maz)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 5:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/some-questions-about-serious-ruby-development/97914/11 "2006-07-12T05:26:52Z")
On Jul 11, 2006, at 9:20 PM, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > Just Another Victim of the Ambient M. wrote: > > > ``` > > Can anyone recommend a good IDE? > > > > ``` > > Check out xmp for vim for code evaluation and annotation: > [eigenclass.org](http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?Enhanced+xmp+code+evaluation+and) > +annotation For those of you that use TextMate, this is now bundled with the editor as the Execute and Update ?# =\>? Markers command in the Ruby bundle menu. James Edward G. II