E Text Editor 1.0.20 Beta
The E Text Editor is basically a TextMate clone for Windows. It shares many of TextMate's strengths and weaknesses. Because
several TextMate bundles rely on Unix capabilities, E asks that you install Cygwin to enable those bundles. E has a few Windows-specific
bundles of its own, for example to support C# and ASP.Net, and ships without the obvious Mac-specific bundles, such as ActionScript
and Objective-C.
E takes advantage of the community that has grown up around TextMate. Most of what's in the TextMate book applies equally
well to E, and many TextMate bundles downloaded from the Macromates Subversion repository will run as is in E. Some won't,
of course; Windows currently doesn't have an AppleTalk clone, at least that I know of.
E has a project view that's surprisingly useful. As you can see here, the E project view on my computer also shows the TortoiseSVN icon for each file. E also has its own local versioning mechanism.
I experienced occasional crashes when using E, but I couldn't reproduce them well enough for a bug report. The author appears
to be responsive; I saw two updates to the product during my tests.
If you adopt E as your primary Rails development environment, consider using RadRails or NetBeans as a free secondary IDE
for your debugging and refactoring needs.
Intype 0.3.1 Alpha
Intype is a fast, efficient code editor for Windows that was inspired by TextMate. It's actually good enough to use as a free
Alpha test version, but it lacks many of the features implemented in E. For starters, it has no project view; it's missing
about half of the Rails bundle; and it has no bundle editor. Unlike E, it has no way to implement bundle features that require
Unix functionality.
Given its omissions, I'd only recommend the current version of Intype to developers who want a TextMate-like editor for Windows but can't afford to or don't want to pay the $34.95 price of E.
Intype development appears to have stalled, based on the stale content on the Intype Web site. If the developers ever get
their act together to release a product, they intend to charge roughly the same price as E.
More polish required
In conclusion, Rails itself is in a state of flux, and the Rails IDEs are mostly still trying to catch up to the changes introduced
on Rails 2.0, much less Rails 2.1. Most of the Rails IDEs discussed in this review package will work well with the current
Rails and rake gems with only minor annoyances: The most common annoyance is confusion between RHTML files and HTML.ERB files
when generating and navigating to views.
Of course, the next time the Rails core changes, the IDE vendors will have to scramble to keep up, once again.
[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 |
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| criteria |
score |
weight |
| Features |
8 |
40% |
|
| Ease-of-use |
9 |
20% |
|
| Integration |
9 |
20% |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| criteria |
score |
weight |
| Features |
9 |
40% |
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| Ease-of-use |
9 |
20% |
|
| 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 |
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| 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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