Using the Ruby Dev-Tools plug-in for Eclipse

An anonymous reader writes "IBM Developerworks is running an article that introduces using the Ruby Development Tools (RDT) plug-in for Eclipse, which allows Eclipse to become a first-rate Ruby development environment. Ruby developers who want to learn how to use the rich infrastructure of the Eclipse community to support their language will benefit, as will Java developers who are interested in using Ruby."

RadRails

[TedCheshireAcad]

Making use of this and the Eclipse RCP, the RadRails [radrails.org] is also making a big contribution to the community.

Re:What doesn't Eclipse do?

[Coryoth]

I think there is a plug in that should scratch just about any itch. Nice.

Indeed, the Python [sourceforge.net] and Perl [sourceforge.net] plugins are both very nice and from the look of it more featureful than the Ruby plugin at the moment (though I expect it's only a short matter of time before that evens out). I think its more a matter of what languages aren't currently covered? There are apparently plugins for Eiffel [sourceforge.net] and Haskell and Ocaml [sourceforge.net] and SPARK [sri.com] and Scheme [eclipse-plugins.info] (though I can't vouch for quality on any of those) and pretty much anything else you can imagine (given that those were random searches on my part).

Jedidiah.

Radrails

[augustz]

Checkout RadRails [radrails.org]

RadRails is an integrated development environment for the Ruby on Rails framework. The goal of this project is to provide Rails developers with everything they need to develop, manage, test and deploy their applications. Features include source control, debugging, WEBrick servers, generator wizards, syntax highlighting, data tools and much much more.

The RadRails IDE is built on the Eclipse RCP, and includes plugins from RDT and Subclipse. The RadRails tools are also available as Eclipse plugins.

Uses RDT plus others, and a nice, clean install.

Re:What doesn't Eclipse do?

[John Whitley]

[Eclipse lacks] block / column mode cut/copy/paste support..

No, it doesn't. This is currently provided by the Lunar Eclipse [sourceforge.net] project, which publishes a few Eclipse plugins. Specifically, look at the rectangle copy/cut/paste/edit operations in the Editor Enhancements plugin created by that project. (Note: the Emacs-style Alt-/ completion mentioned on these pages was integrated as a part of Eclipse itself.)

Also, Eclipse has a useful stock feature which covers one use case for rectangular edits: block indent change. Highlight a few lines of text, then hit tab/S-tab to increase/decrease the indent of all highlighted lines uniformly. It's such a simple feature, but I love it.

Re:Ruby.....

[geniusj]

I come from a C/Perl/Java background, and Ruby just seems too different I can't tell whether it's work taking the time to learn or not.

Once you learn it, you'll find that it is very consistent throughout development. You don't need to worry about certain syntax not working in certain situations, etc. Language consistency is the main reason I use Ruby. If I don't know it, I can guess and be right 95% of the time. It's almost creepy.

That said, I'd have to imagine that closures are the main issue you have with Ruby's syntax, since that's really the only part of Ruby's syntax that differs from other scripting languages.

e.g.

1.upto(5) do |number|
    puts number
end
1
2
3
4
5

    Just know that closures are incredibly powerful and can be used to simplify a great deal of things. Don't let the use of |s turn you away.

Text editor vs. IDE

[Anonymous Coward]

Why use Eclipse? Why indeed. How about:
- best of breed Java development tools, including full refactoring support and full debugger
- team integration (comes with CVS support, other stuff can be added with plugins)
- awesome browsing support
- automatic incremental builds take place in the background. NEVER PRESS THE COMPILE BUTTON AGAIN. Just type some code, hit Save, and see the compile errors appear in the margin immediately. Since there's no need to stop and compile, you can Debug or Run your application at any time. (of course you can turn off auto builds if you prefer to build manually)
- RCP makes a good target platform for GUI apps. Use native widgets in your Java code. Develop Eclipse plugins in Eclipse.
- Useful frameworks like GEF (Graphical Editor Framework) and EMF (Eclipse Modeling Framework) can accelerate your development cycle.

I've been using Eclipse for Java development for about 3 years and I can't imagine writing Java code without it. Who wants to perform refactorings by hand, or debug with some crappy command-line debugger? Whether you're writing little hack utilities in Java or giant GUI apps, JDT just can't be beat.