SapphireSteel Ruby in Steel Developer Edition 1.2 and Text Edition 1.1.5
In my brief review of Ruby in Steel 1.0 from early 2007, I said, "Any serious professional Ruby developer who has a copy of Visual Studio 2005
Professional or above should at least try out Ruby in Steel Developer. If you're like me, the asking price will seem cheap
for the combination of the fast debugging and the great IntelliSense support."
The Ruby in Steel product is now up to Version 1.2, which is one of the critical milestones on its road map, as it introduces
Visual Rails Workbench (see Figure 1), a Web page designer for Rails that supports Embedded Ruby and templates. That's a significant accomplishment.
At this point, the product has most of the Rails integration features that I missed in 1.0, plus some bonus features that
I didn't know I'd want, such as a fast JRuby debugger. (See the full feature list for both the Developer and Text Editions.)
The Visual Rails Workbench, the fast debugging, and the great IntelliSense support are the three core features that differentiate
Ruby in Steel 1.2 Developer from the Text Edition. The performance hit from debugging with Cylon is barely noticeable, which
is not the case with the standard Ruby debugger. There are also mind-blowing dynamic debugging scenarios that work in the Cylon debugger.
Right now, the Visual Rails Workbench can be a little funky when it comes to synchronizing an overall page design with its
components, but SapphireSteel assures me that Version 1.3 will fix that issue. Later in the development cycle, the IntelliSense
support will be extended to database code and user-selectable libraries, and the Visual Rails Workbench will be extended to
handle RXML and RJS. You'll note that there's nothing resembling the Ruby in Steel Visual Rails Workbench in any of the other
products I reviewed.
If I had three wishes for new features in Ruby in Steel that aren't currently on its road map, they would be refactoring support,
better test integration than the current simple front end for "rake," and support for TextMate-compatible bundles.
A visual overview of Ruby In Steel is available here. You may also watch 10 short screencasts right here.
[Jump to the review of the Ruby on Rails IDE of your choice from the list below:
SapphireSteel Ruby in Steel Developer Edition 1.2 and Text Edition 1.1.5
Aptana RadRails 1.0
ActiveState Komodo IDE 4.3 and Edit 4.3
CodeGear 3rdRail 1.1
NetBeans IDE 6.1
MacroMates TextMate 1.5.7
JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA 7.0.3 with Ruby plug-in 1.0
E Text Editor 1.0.20 Beta
Intype 0.3.1 Alpha]
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| The Bottom Line |
SapphireSteel Ruby in Steel Developer Edition 1.2 and Text Edition 1.1.5
SapphireSteel Software, sapphiresteel.com
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 Very Good 8.3 |
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| criteria |
score |
weight |
| Features |
9 |
40% |
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| Ease-of-use |
8 |
20% |
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| Integration |
7 |
20% |
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| Performance |
9 |
10% |
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| Value |
8 |
10% |
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Cost:
$199 for Developer Edition, $49 for Text Edition (with reduced features and performance)
Platforms:
Windows XP/Vista
Bottom Line:
If you use Visual Studio for coding in other languages and/or developing other kinds of Web sites and want to develop Ruby
programs and Rails sites in the same IDE, then Ruby in Steel is exactly what you need. The best features -- the IntelliSense
support for Ruby and Rails, the Visual Rails Workbench, and the fast Ruby and JRuby debuggers -- are reserved for the more
expensive Developer Edition.
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About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology
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| The Bottom Line |
Aptana RadRails 1.0
Aptana, aptana.com
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| Very Good 8.6 |
|
| criteria |
score |
weight |
| Features |
8 |
40% |
|
| Ease-of-use |
9 |
20% |
|
| Integration |
9 |
20% |
|
| Performance |
8 |
10% |
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| Value |
10 |
10% |
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Cost:
RadRails plug-in is free; $199 ($99 intro) for Aptana Studio Professional Edition. Community Edition is free, but lacks Profiler
and JSON editor
Platforms:
Windows 32- or 64-bit platforms, Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, or Linux 32-bit with GTK.
Bottom Line:
Aptana RadRails is a cross-platform Rails editor built on top of the Eclipse IDE. The free Community Edition is good enough
for most Rails developers' needs. The fact that RadRails is part of Aptana means that RadRails users have access to excellent
JavaScript editing and debugging, which helps when working with AJAX.
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About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology
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| The Bottom Line |
ActiveState Komodo IDE 4.3 and Edit 4.3
ActiveState Software, activestate.com
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| Good 7.9 |
|
| criteria |
score |
weight |
| Features |
7 |
40% |
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| Ease-of-use |
9 |
20% |
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| Integration |
8 |
20% |
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| Performance |
9 |
10% |
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| Value |
8 |
10% |
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Cost:
$295 for IDE, Edit is free
Platforms:
Windows 2000/XP/Vista; Mac OS X 10.3 and higher; Debian/Ubuntu 5.04 and higher; Red Hat/Fedora 4 and higher; Suse 9.0 and
higher
Bottom Line:
If you are already using the multiplatform, multilingual Komodo IDE for development in other languages, it makes sense to
use it for Ruby on Rails as well. It probably wouldn't be my top pick for full-time Rails developers, however. Komodo Edit
is a reasonably good free Ruby on Rails editor, but lacks the debuggers, interactive shells, HTTP inspector, DOM viewer, and
SCC integration of Komodo IDE.
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About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology
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| The Bottom Line |
CodeGear 3rdRail 1.1
CodeGear, codegear.com
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| Very Good 8.4 |
|
| criteria |
score |
weight |
| Features |
8 |
40% |
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| Ease-of-use |
9 |
20% |
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| Integration |
9 |
20% |
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| Performance |
9 |
10% |
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| Value |
7 |
10% |
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Cost:
$399
Platforms:
Windows XP/Vista; Mac OS X 10.4/10.5; Ubuntu Linux 7.1
Bottom Line:
3rdRail, which won a Jolt Productivity award last spring, offers higher developer productivity than most other Rails IDEs,
at a higher price. Developers who work on Rails applications full-time should be able to justify the initial cost in terms
of long-term productivity gains.
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About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology
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| The Bottom Line |
NetBeans IDE 6.1
Sun, netbeans.org
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| Excellent 9.0 |
|
| criteria |
score |
weight |
| Features |
9 |
40% |
|
| Ease-of-use |
9 |
20% |
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| Integration |
9 |
20% |
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| Performance |
8 |
10% |
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| Value |
10 |
10% |
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Cost:
Free
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Solaris.
Bottom Line:
If you already use NetBeans for Java and/or C/C++ development, then it should probably be your top choice as a Rails IDE as
well. Delivering strong editing and navigation along with good debugging and profiling, it's a very capable and highly integrated
Rails IDE. And it's free.
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About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology
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| The Bottom Line |
MacroMates TextMate 1.5.7
MacroMates, http://macromates.com
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| Very Good 8.0 |
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| criteria |
score |
weight |
| Features |
8 |
40% |
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| Ease-of-use |
8 |
20% |
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| Integration |
7 |
20% |
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| Performance |
9 |
10% |
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| Value |
9 |
10% |
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Cost:
Around $63
Platforms:
Mac OS 10.4.2 PPC/Intel
Bottom Line:
TextMate is the favorite editor of the core Rails development team, but it's only available for Mac OS X. Its full set of
Ruby and Rails bundles help substantially with navigation, generation, and snippet insertion. Using them effectively, however,
requires memorizing shortcuts.
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About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology
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| The Bottom Line |
JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA 7.0.3 with Ruby plug-in 1.0
JetBrains, jetbrains.com
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| Very Good 8.1 |
|
| criteria |
score |
weight |
| Features |
8 |
40% |
|
| Ease-of-use |
8 |
20% |
|
| Integration |
8 |
20% |
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| Performance |
9 |
10% |
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| Value |
8 |
10% |
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Cost:
$249 for IntelliJ IDEA; Ruby plug-in is free
Platforms:
Windows Vista/2003/XP/2000/NT 4.0 SP6a; Mac OS X 10.4; Red Hat Linux Fedora/9.x/8.x/7.3
Bottom Line:
If you already use IntelliJ IDEA for Java development, you might like it as a Rails IDE as well: It brings to the table good
Ruby and Rails edits, integration, and refactoring. You'll have to look elsewhere for a debugger, however.
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About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology
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| The Bottom Line |
E Text Editor 1.0.20
E Text Editor, e-texteditor.com
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| Beta |
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Cost:
$34.95
Platforms:
Windows
Bottom Line:
This capable TextMate clone for Windows is fast and efficient, incorporating the TextMate bundle and shortcut mechanism and
bundle editor. Its full set of Ruby and Rails bundles help substantially with navigation, generation, and snippet insertion.
Using them effectively, however, requires memorizing shortcuts.
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About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology
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