Ruby ide reviews on Windows Platforms

Source: Internet
Author: User
Tags netbeans
Output to: http://robbin.javaeye.com/blog/57474

There is almost no controversy in the MACOs platform, and textmate is used by everyone. However, there are many ides available for selection and use on the Windows platform, but each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Based on all the ruby ide I have used. Ror ide on Windows platforms is mainly divided into two categories: one is a heavyweight full-featured IDE, such as Eclipse, netbeans, idea and jedit, which consumes resources and has complete functions; the other type is lightweight IDE, such as Komodo, rored, Vim, emacs, and E. The following is a one-to-one comment:

I. heavyweight ide

1. radrails-the most recommendable ide

Radrails is an eclipse-based plug-in with the current version 0.7.2. Radrails inherits various functions of the eclipse platform, especially CVS/SVN integration. Compared with other Ruby ides, radrails has very few bugs and has very complete functions.

1) compared with most other bugs in ror IDE, radrails is very stable in version 0.7.2. I have been using it for several months, and there are basically no major bugs.

2) complete functions, more or less other ide functions are missing, but radrails functions are very complete: built-in Server Management, generator, rake task, rdoc retrieval, plugin installation, rule expression validation, tail log, console debugging window, debug, code formatting, code and template highlighting, Ruby code and rhtml template automatic prompts, unit test support, jump between code and test, code and template redirection are all-encompassing.

3) Chinese support is very good, UTF-8 encoding support is also very good. Chinese font display is also very beautiful, which is very important for us.

However, radrails does not have any disadvantages. The fatal disadvantage of radrails is that its RDT function is too weak.

1) The recognition capability of the code is very poor, and I won't automatically complete the end when I knock a Def return. In addition, it cannot search Ruby library files for syntax tree analysis, so there is no smart prompt function.

2) There is no Ctrl + O like Eclipse's jdt to quickly navigate to a method. This is very important for my development, otherwise, I always need to use serch "def method name" to quickly find the method to be modified, which is very inconvenient. This is one of the places where I am very worried about RDT, there is no function for F3 to quickly navigate to the class definition file.

The next version of RDT 0.9.0 is expected to be released in two weeks (the new version has not been released in two years, which is too dull). It seems that the ast parsing capability of the script language is greatly enhanced, if this is the case, it is still worth looking forward to. It is expected that radrails will release version 0.8 A few weeks after rdt0.9.0 is released. It is also worth mentioning that radrails has received some sponsorship and support from SAP.

2. netbeans-the most promising ide

Netbeans6.0m7 provides the generic language support framework, a powerful scripting language framework. Based on this framework, the ruby and Ruby on Rails support is remarkable. The ruby language and library can be well analyzed to provide intelligent code prompting functions, allowing Ruby programmers to enjoy the ". "to jump out of the detailed prompt function, truly have a sense of security to write Java programs. Some advantages are indeed great:

1) The Code awareness capability is strong. Not only are the system library APIs, but all the class APIs of your own project can be prompted according to the context. With the security of writing Java programs, you do not need to jump to the class definition file.

2) Quickly open the rails library file and all Ruby library files, similar to opening the source code of the dependent Library and the JDK source code function in eclipse, it is very useful for learning and familiarizing yourself with Ruby libraries and rails.

3) Ctrl + G can be used to quickly locate class locating files, similar to the F3 function of Eclipse.

At present, these features of netbeans are far ahead of all other IDES and are very promising. However, netbeans also has some obvious shortcomings. Some things are very strange to use, probably because netbeans6.0 or beta version has many bugs and is not stable enough:

1) there is no quick file location function similar to the CTRL + Shift + R feature of eclipse. You need to find it in the project tree layer by layer, which is really unbearable. A large project can contain hundreds of files, but cannot be quickly located, which affects efficiency. In fact, netbeans provides a shortcut for positioning CTRL + ALT + O, but it does not work. The search box is always empty. Therefore, it is suspected that netbeans has this function, which is currently caused by a bug.

2) Failing to quickly locate a method in the file is as disappointing as radrails.

3) There are not many convenient code editing functions in the editor, Which is annoying. This is obviously not as convenient as radrails.

4) Poor Support for Chinese Characters

5) yml files are not highlighted.

6) dependent on jdk6.0, It is not smooth on jdk5.0.

In general, netbeans is the most promising ide. By the end of, netbeans6.0 was officially released. After Ruby plug-in support is more mature, I think I will transfer it to netbeans. In addition, Sun has been committed to developing the JVM platform since jdk6, vigorously expanding the support of the script language on the JVM platform, and Sun has given jruby official support, therefore, the script framework and ror support of the netbeans platform have enough commercial impetus, and the prospects should be the best!

3. Idea-watching

It seems that some people wrote articles some time ago and recommended idea as the preferred Ruby ide. I think his reasons are very strange. In fact, idea is not a good choice at the moment: Its Ruby Code awareness and smart prompting capabilities are obviously inferior to netbeans, its functionality is obviously inferior to radrails, and the most fatal thing is that idea cannot highlight and prompt rhtml templates, so it announced that idea is basically unavailable, in addition, yml files cannot be highlighted. The plug-in author said that the next version will provide rhtml highlighting and prompts, so we are still holding a wait-and-see attitude towards idea.

However, idea also has some obvious advantages. For example, idea has the shortcut keys CTRL + ALT + N and ALT + N for Fast Location of Ruby classes and Ruby resources, which is obviously better than radrails and netbeans, in addition, there are shortcut keys for quick locating in the current file, which finally overcome my biggest grievance against radrails.

4. jedit-There seems to be no reason to use it.

As a heavyweight IDE, it is positioned on the lightweight feature. A lot of plug-ins need to be installed to barely run the feature. There is no reason to use it.

Ii. Lightweight ide

1. E-the most promising lightweight ide

E. there are indeed many bugs and many functions are missing. For example, I am very concerned about the shortcut keys for fast locating files and the shortcut keys for quick locating methods in the current file, currently, e is not supported, but textmate does. to quickly delete the current row, command + L is used in textmate, but E does not seem to have such functions. Therefore, there is a big gap between E and textmate.

However, e indeed completely clones textmate in the main aspect, so the lack of these small functions should be only a matter of time. Therefore, I believe that E will become a well-deserved textmate for the Windows platform in about half a year.

2. komodo-poor performance

Komodo is a traditional script ide with no special support for Ruby, including the most basic syntax highlighting and simple code prompts, and a simple project tree, the operation speed is still very slow, and it is still charged, it is really not worth using.

3. rored-mini Ruby ide

If you really want to use Komodo, I suggest you use rored, a simple editor specially designed for Ruby on Rails, with Ruby syntax highlighting, project tree, and simple functions, it may be enough for some people who prefer ultraedit/editplus to use rored, and the speed is quite fast.

4. Vim/emacs-Ruby ide not suitable for Windows Platforms

Vim and Emacs, which are derived from the UNIX platform IDE, are not suitable for use on Windows. Because Vim/Emacs was designed as an editing environment with no mouse support, it relies entirely on the keyboard command driver. This kind of habit is broken when you use it in windows, and thus it affects efficiency very much.

For example, execute a generator in vim and display the buffer in the vim window on Unix. After the execution is completed, press enter to exit the buffer, which is convenient and fast. However, on Windows, a DOS window pops up, And the keyboard focus is transferred to this DOS window. This forces you to use the mouse to select the DOS window, close it, and then focus on vim. In this case, Vim's biggest advantage is lost, but it is very troublesome.

Of course, you can use Alt + TAB to switch the window without using the mouse. However, it is a pity that Windows has poor window switching capabilities. Once you open more windows, it is very troublesome to switch between Windows quickly, it is not as convenient as a mouse. There is a big gap between windows and MACOs. The multi-window switch on MACOs is called a cool word!

Finally, I think that lightweight IDE is not very popular in the Windows platform market, even if E's functions can be improved to textmate level, it will not be as popular as radrails. It is mainly related to the support of the operating system:

On MacOS, you can open a textmate window, a browser window, a tail log window, a command window to start and close the server, a command window to perform console debugging, and a command window to perform unit testing, there is also a command window connecting to the MySQL database to view data. It is very convenient to switch back and forth between these windows by using shortcuts.

However, Windows's window switching function is too weak. When you open seven windows, the efficiency of switching back and forth is very low during programming. Therefore, to improve work efficiency in Windows, you will be inclined to integrate all the functions in the IDE such as radrails. As long as a radrails window is used, a browser window is enough. In this way, the work efficiency is high.

 

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