The perfect development environment?

I am trying to create the perfect development environment for rails
and i dont know exactly which way to go. Do i create a windows
environment or a *nix environment. If i go *nix, what distro is best
suited for rails. I would be using mysql, so that would come in to
play. If i go *nix, i would use apache. Any ideas for the right
environment would be greatly appreciated. I guess the major choice is
what environment. The what web server and so on.
Thanks,
-Nick

RadRails w/MySQL on a Windows machine.

Dual monitors makes it better to. If you can, but a beverage caddie
that brings free beverages.

That would be a good development environment.

Nick H. <nrhird@…> writes:

I am trying to create the perfect development environment for rails
and i dont know exactly which way to go.

Mac OS X or Linux on a 17" powerbook G4.

Develop locally against WEBrick. Don’t develop remotely and don’t
develop against Apache. Apache is for deployment. If you don’t already
know how to configure Apache by hand when it comes time to work on
deployment, consider Lighttpd.

Use RadRails as your IDE. Check your code in and out of Subversion,
beacuase not using version control is foolish and because when you want
to download some plugins to use in building your app, you’ll find most
of them are most easily installed vis SVN anyway. The only reason to
consider any other version control system should be because your company
policy dictates something else, or you’re a guru in it.

Install the core of Ruby 1.8.4 and the Gems core however you want,
either as a package on your choice of *nix or via a pretty installer for
Windows.

Install Rails via the command-line “gem install [pkgname]” because it
will be much easier to maintain that way than with .debs, RPMs or WSI
installers. Besides, doing it that way works exactly the same on Windows
and *nix.

Have at least 512MB of RAM, prefereably more.

Using MySQL? Use MySQL 4.1 or 5 for compatibility, ubiquity and to have
things like transaction support available if you want to use them at
some point.

Unless you’re working with a legacy database, do not use a MySQL client
for anything beyond creating the bare, empty schema and assigning
privileges. Use Migrations from the very start to create and maintain
the schema itself.

I repeat: don’t create your database with a MySQL management tool or
schema designer, unless you have a specific reason for doing so.

If you’re pretty sure you’re going to deploy your app on Apache, then
use 2.0, because 1.3 can’t host Subversion repositories and because 2.1
and 2.2 aren’t very widely used and thus lag in support for things like
mod_fastcgi that compile correctly.

Do not. DO NOT. DO! NOT! DEVELOP! AGAINST! APACHE! unless you’re
developing something that uses Apache for key application functionality,
like an external authentication module. If you’re not absolutely certain
this is your situation, DO NOT DEVELOP AGAINST APACHE. Doing so, except
in the aforementioned edge case, is a waste of time, gains you nothing,
and may in fact hinder you. Later, if circumstances dicate, reevaluate.

Deploy on Apache? Sure!

When you’re a week away from having an app far enough along to try
deploying, start reading up on Capistrano for automating deployment.

As for Windows vs. *nix, it’s a matter of what you prefer to spend your
day using. Rails is Rails and with with RadRails and version control
your development experience as far as Rails goes is going to be
identical. I happen to be on Windows for development (and FreeBSD for
deployment, which is painless) because I need Windows for other apps
during my day. It also happens to force me to avoid putting
platform-specific pathnames in my code, which keeps me honest. But if
you don’t need Windows for anything and are comfortable in *nix and make
good use of the commandline, go ahead and use that. Use an up-to-date
distro of whatever you like best. It doesn’t matter.

Oh, and if you’re on FreeBSD, use the no-pthreads version of Ruby. It’s
much faster than the default one.

Nick H. wrote:

I am trying to create the perfect development environment for rails
and i dont know exactly which way to go. Do i create a windows
environment or a *nix environment. If i go *nix, what distro is best
suited for rails. I would be using mysql, so that would come in to
play. If i go *nix, i would use apache. Any ideas for the right
environment would be greatly appreciated. I guess the major choice is
what environment. The what web server and so on.
Thanks,
-Nick

Ruby Development Tools
RDT is an open source Ruby IDE for the Eclipse platform.

You will need a Java runtime environment (JRE) to use Eclipse

eclipse http://www.eclipse.org/
you can can do alot of other dev in eclipse as well
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/index_project.php

I’ve been investigating the benefits of a Mac Mini Duo 1GB RAM with the
Boot
Camp (dual-bootable) beta functionality. If I ever have to utilize
something in Windows, I can… Otherwise I can take advantage of the
sweetness that is OS X. And I agree with the previous commentary;
Eclipse /
RadRails is a pretty good combination. It even gives you a happy GUI
for
all the WEBrick stuff. You wouldn’t even need Apache installed if you
didn’t want it. Though I think it would be useful to “test-deploy” to
Apache locally… And it’s useful for other things…

-Curtis

On Friday, May 05, 2006, at 11:29 AM, Curtis wrote:

what environment. The what web server and so on.
Rails mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

Parallels workstation does a pretty good job with this too, with the
added benefit of not having to reboot into windows and the potential for
running the server on your windows virtual machine (if you need to test
against something like MSSQL). Being able to switch back and forth is
kind of nice, even if it is slower.

_Kevin

If you have any doubts at all, get the Mac mini. You can always run
Windows on it. With the mini and OS X, you get to run TextMate. I’ve
developed and deployed RoR on Windows, Linux and Mac, and I can say
that it’s a royal PITA on Windows, Linux is faster when launching
Rails scripts etc, but Mac is great for productivity.

InstantRails sounds fine but I don’t really like it. It bakes in
Apache and MySQL, so if you have those installed already, then it
becomes unwieldy. It’s no substitute for an IDE, lots of the things in
Rails that are scripts have been updated to become .BAT files (ughh!)
and in short, you never know when you are going to miss out on
something due to a Windowism.

It’s not an IDE at all either, just a glorified installer/launcher for
Rails. On other platforms, it just installs (aka JUST WORKS). The only
decent IDE on Windows is RadRails, which is basically Eclipse and just
as RAM hungry without a lot of the nice stuff that TextMate has.

I would pick Linux or Mac OS X over Windows for Rails development AND
deployment. That’s just my personal opinion, though, YMMV.

– G.

On 5 May 2006 18:21:43 -0000, Kevin O.

I bought a MacBookPro for this very reason. I developed using
RadRails/Eclipse/RDT for a while, and I got tired of the bloated
Eclipse.
Also, dealing with line endings/shebang issues/executable file problems,
etc, just made working on Windows more of a headache. It’s not
impossible,
and most of your problems can be solved in one place with the correct
Subversion settings and Capistrano settings, but I just found that I had
more deployment issues on the PC that made me bang my head against the
wall
when I could have been developing. Plus, Textmate really IS good, and
I’ve
found that I’m much happier (there’s the DHH buzzword) in Textmate. It’s
lightweight and speedy.

I also like running against Lighty on my Mac, because it’s a little
closer
to production. And finally, I just dig the Mac interface. I was a Mac
disser
until about 6 months ago, but that’s all over.

All of that said, RadRails + Webrick + Subversion is a perfectly valid
dev
environment, but you’ll have more stupid little deployment problems than
you
would on a *NIX dev box.

Matt

Zed S. mentioned no-pthreads and I built one on Darwin, but there are
some
caveats that the no-pthreads version may break other Ruby functionality.
Does anyone know whether this is a big deal?

Oh, and if you’re on FreeBSD, use the no-pthreads version of Ruby. It’s
much faster than the default one.


View this message in context:
http://www.nabble.com/The-perfect-development-environment--t1564715.html#a4252463
Sent from the RubyOnRails Users forum at Nabble.com.

Hi, Steve.

You wrote some strongly worded advice, such as:

On Fri, 5 May 2006, Steve K. wrote:

Develop locally against WEBrick. Don’t develop remotely and don’t
develop against Apache. Apache is for deployment. If you don’t already
know how to configure Apache by hand when it comes time to work on
deployment, consider Lighttpd.

Do not. DO NOT. DO! NOT! DEVELOP! AGAINST! APACHE! unless you’re
developing something that uses Apache for key application functionality,
like an external authentication module. If you’re not absolutely certain
this is your situation, DO NOT DEVELOP AGAINST APACHE. Doing so, except
in the aforementioned edge case, is a waste of time, gains you nothing,
and may in fact hinder you. Later, if circumstances dicate, reevaluate.

I’m curious as to why this is such an imperative? This is not to say
that
I disagree with it, but that I don’t see what is so critically difficult
about working with Rails and Apache versus any other platform. Is Rails
FCGI so different than any other FCGI? Or is this merely a warning that
working under a persisted FCGI environment can be a pain?

How would you suggest developing applications that require multiple
connections back to the server? WEBrick is single-threaded and won’t
handle simultaneous requests. Is this one of the edge cases that
requires
development under Apache or is there a method to do this I simply
haven’t
seen yet?


Louis Erickson - [email protected] - Lou's Home Page!

The best thing about growing older is that it takes such a long time.

if u want to join ror
this a good website for u begin
http://www.rorlearn.com

Do not. DO NOT. DO! NOT! DEVELOP! AGAINST! APACHE! unless you’re
developing something that uses Apache for key application functionality,
like an external authentication module. If you’re not absolutely certain
this is your situation, DO NOT DEVELOP AGAINST APACHE. Doing so, except

I’m curious as to why this is such an imperative? This is not to say
that

its just fear-mongering. i used apache for years (not all of it with
rails, mainly mod_python, and about 5 years ago, PHP). works just fine

as for the perfect development environment? i think id want something
more squeak-like. im a fan of building Tk GUIs with the inline tkcon
editor, theres something about getting it right then exporting it to
source code, rather than the other way around. i guess we won’t see this
in rails at least until you can manipulate the entire DOM from ruby (i
think maybe kazehakase can do this now? im not sure ruby-gtkmozembed
can…) and someone builds an editor in it first…

paw wrote:

if u want to join ror
this a good website for u begin

So far, I'm counting plagiarised (or at least unattributed) content from:
  • Curt H. (The Tutorials section)
  • Kevin C. (The Articles section)
  • Kyle M. (RadRails 0.6.2 announcement)

Anyone I’ve missed?

The rails screencasts are hosted without attribution, too. Is there any
reason to think this isn’t linkfarming scum?

On May 9, 2006, at 12:29 AM, Alex Y. wrote:

Anyone I’ve missed?

The rails screencasts are hosted without attribution, too. Is
there any reason to think this isn’t linkfarming scum?

No, this looks pretty low. Definitely a link farm spammer.

-Ezra

Direct complaints to:

Domain Name: RORLEARN.COM
Registrar: MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE
Whois Server: whois.melbourneit.com
Referral URL: http://www.melbourneit.com
Name Server: YNS2.YAHOO.COM
Name Server: YNS1.YAHOO.COM
Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
EPP Status: clientDeleteProhibited
EPP Status: clientTransferProhibited
EPP Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 21-Apr-2006
Creation Date: 21-Apr-2006
Expiration Date: 21-Apr-2008

Domain Name… rorlearn.com
Creation Date… 2006-04-21
Registration Date… 2006-04-21
Expiry Date… 2008-04-21
Organisation Name… CHEN YUTENG
Organisation Address. 2135A des Laurentides Blvd., Suite 250
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. Laval
Organisation Address. H7M 4M2
Organisation Address. Qc
Organisation Address. CANADA

Admin Name… Wu Hu
Admin Address… 2135A des Laurentides Blvd., Suite 250
Admin Address…
Admin Address… Laval
Admin Address… H7M 4M2
Admin Address… Qc
Admin Address… CANADA
Admin Email… [email protected]
Admin Phone… +1.6198813096
Admin Fax…

Tech Name… Wu Hu
Tech Address… 2135A des Laurentides Blvd., Suite 250
Tech Address…
Tech Address… Laval
Tech Address… H7M 4M2
Tech Address… Qc
Tech Address… CANADA
Tech Email… [email protected]
Tech Phone… +1.6198813096
Tech Fax…
Name Server… yns1.yahoo.com
Name Server… yns2.yahoo.com

On 5/9/06, Ezra Z. [email protected] wrote:

  • Curt H. (The Tutorials section)

-Ezra


Rails mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails


Ben R.
303-947-0446
http://www.benr75.com

http://www.rorlearn.com

complaining about propagation of rails-evangalism content? too funny. i
was always skeptical of the ‘openness’ of the whole thing, with the
obvious Mac bias of the creators’ marketing and attitude, and ‘we’ll
make a hosted app for $12.95 that does the same thing that 3 dozen free
Gnome apps that will also do the same thing’ , but this seals it :slight_smile:

i also thought id never live long enough that people would be fighting
over table scraps of ad revenue. can the apocalyps be far off?

On 5/9/06, Alex Y. [email protected] wrote:

Anyone I’ve missed?

Noticed some content there from Why The Lucky Stiff as well.

cheers,
Ben

On 6/05/2006, at 3:25 AM, Nick H. wrote:

I am trying to create the perfect development environment for rails

Locomotive and TextMate on OS X is a sweet combination.

There are good package installers for MySQL and PostgreSQL too!

Why make it harder that necessary? :o)

Andrew D.

tel: +64 9 623 2926
blog: http://www.webwerks.co.nz/weblog/

Programmers do it while (1)

cdr wrote:

http://www.rorlearn.com

complaining about propagation of rails-evangalism content? too funny. i
was always skeptical of the ‘openness’ of the whole thing, with the
obvious Mac bias of the creators’ marketing and attitude, and ‘we’ll
make a hosted app for $12.95 that does the same thing that 3 dozen free
Gnome apps that will also do the same thing’ , but this seals it :slight_smile:

i also thought id never live long enough that people would be fighting
over table scraps of ad revenue. can the apocalyps be far off
It’s about giving credit where credit is due. The author deceitfully
takes articles and pastes them into his site without any cite of where
they have been taken from. I can go to the original article sites
without sitting through disruptive advertisements and pop-up ads as
well.

My $.02