InfoQ

InfoQ

News

My Bookmarks

Login or Register to enable bookmarks for unlimited time.

The content has been bookmarked!

There was an error bookmarking this content! Please retry.

Ruby in Steel - Free Edition includes Visual Studio

Posted by Robert Bazinet on Oct 06, 2008

Sections
Development
Topics
Web Frameworks ,
Ruby ,
Ruby on Rails
Tags
Visual Studio ,
Rails

The latest free edition of Ruby In Steel now includes a free copy of Visual Studio.  SapphireSteel Software released this free edition of their flagship Ruby and Rails IDE for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, Ruby In Steel.

Ruby in Steel is currently the only way to develop Ruby applications in Visual Studio today and includes a large list of features developers expect in a Visual Studio supported language.  The Ruby In Steel Personal Edition (PE) 2008 provides all the tools needed to develop and maintain Ruby or Ruby On Rails projects including syntax sensitive customizable code coloring and code folding, coding tools such as auto-indenting, code reformatting, bracket and keyword matching and integrated consoles to allow users to interact with the Ruby interpreter in docked or floating windows. Ruby In Steel PE 2008 even includes a free copy of Visual Studio 2008!

Ruby In Steel PE 2008 is available for personal or commercial development. It does not require registration and it does not time out. It comes with an ‘All-in-One’ installer to allow users to install all the software required including: Visual Studio 2008 (‘Shell edition’), Ruby, Rails, MySQL and Ruby In Steel. Alternatively, users who already own a commercial edition of Visual Studio 2008 may install Ruby In Steel into that.

Ruby In Steel PE 2008 provides numerous features for Ruby and Rails developers such as:

  • Code Coloring (Ruby)    
  • Code Coloring (ERB/RHTML)                     
  • Code Folding (Ruby)                     
  • Code Folding (ERB/RHTML)                       
  • Bracket matching (move cursor)                             
  • Bracket highlighting                      
  • Keyword..end matching (move cursor)                
  • Block comment/uncomment                    
  • Multi-level undo/redo                 
  • Tabbed (multi-file) editing                         
  • Split-window editing                    
  • Auto Indent/outdent                   
  • Smart Indenting             
  • Auto end-completion (e.g. auto add ‘end’ after ‘def’)  
  • Code Reformatting
  • Project Management in the Solution Explorer
  • Open command prompt in selected directory                   
  • Dockable IRB Console                  
  • Run in integrated interactive console                    
  • Comprehensive PDF User Guide/Manual                           
  • Integrated Help                              
  • All-in-one Installer                         
  • Color schemes/customization                  
  • Supports Ruby 1.8.6 and 1.8.7, Rails 1, Rails 2.1

The free Ruby in Steel PE gives developers a chance to explore Ruby and Ruby on Rails without having to pay for a license of Visual Studio.  The Developer Edition is a superset of Ruby In Steel PE which includes a powerful integrated debugger with watch windows, break-and-step and variable ‘drill-down’ plus a library of auto-expand code snippets.

Ruby In Steel Developer includes the ‘Visual Rails Workbench’ - a unique drag and drop visual design environment for Ruby On Rails plus the ultra-fast ‘Cylon’ debugger. Ruby In Steel Developer supports standard Ruby and JRuby and provides a visual designer (alpha) for Microsoft’s (in development) IronRuby for .NET. Ruby In Steel Developer also has fast IntelliSense with code-completion which analyses code as it is entered to ensure the greatest possible accuracy.

More information is available on the SapphireSteel Software web site

Thats kind of misleading by Francois Ward Posted
Re: Thats kind of misleading by Huw Collingbourne Posted
more work to do by jinliang hu Posted
Re: more work to do by Huw Collingbourne Posted
  1. Back to top

    Thats kind of misleading

    by Francois Ward

    Seems like the words "it includes a free copy of Visual studio" or similar are used way too much in the above. I mean, ANY app can use the VS2008 shell and redistribute it for free. Thats what its there for, in an Eclipse-like fashion. It even says so further down "Shell edition".



    Thats like if that WoW GUI builder thing that was made on top of VS2008 shell said the same. "Comes with a free copy of Visual Studio!". How silly.



    A better way would simply be to state that its fully stand alone now or something.

  2. Back to top

    Re: Thats kind of misleading

    by Huw Collingbourne

    Let me clarify. Ruby In Steel PE was developed to integrated smoothly into any version of Visual Studio 2008 and we specifically developed it to install seamlessly into the Visual Studio Shell which we supply as part of our own ‘All-in-One’ installer. Our aim was to produce a free Ruby IDE which was just as seamless to the end user as one of the ‘Express’ editions of a Microsoft language such as C#.







    It is worth pointing out that many developers still believe that Ruby In Steel requires the purchase of a full commercial edition of Visual Studio. It is a claim that has frequently been levelled against us on forums and blogs - e.g. “Remember you also have to add on the cost of Visual Studio”. It is really hard work for us to persuade people that this is not the case.






    In order to make absolutely certain that people are in no doubt that Ruby In Steel PE will cost them nothing - not a single cent, penny or euro - we state (correctly) that we supply a free version of Visual Studio with our software. We also state, as you have said, that this is the Shell Edition and that its installation is optional since users of commercial versions of Visual Studio may choose to install Ruby In Steel into that edition instead.






    Saying that Ruby In Steel is ‘fully stand alone’ as you suggest is not accurate. Ruby In Steel integrates at the deepest level possible (i.e. it’s not just a ‘plugin’) into Visual Studio. As I said, if you wish it to integrate into a commercial release of VS, alongside other languages such as C# and VB .NET it will do so. This is why describing it as ‘stand alone’ is misleading. Describing it (as we do) as being provided with an optional free version of Visual Studio is accurate.






    best wishes


    Huw Collingbourne





    SapphireSteel Software



    Ruby and Rails In Visual Studio



    www.sapphiresteel.com

  3. Back to top

    more work to do

    by jinliang hu

    i just have a try,i think this production miss some rake function,i still think the aptana communication edition is better.

  4. Back to top

    Re: more work to do

    by Huw Collingbourne

    To run Rake tasks in the free Personal Edition of Ruby In Steel, right click your Rails app directory in the Solution Explorer and open a command prompt in that directory. Run the rake task at the command line then click Ruby/Synchronize to update the Solution Explorer.



    We have a dedicated Rake window in the commercial Developer edition of Ruby In Steel. This lets you add custom rake tasks to a list and run them by clicking a button. However, the ability to open a command prompt in a selected directory (in the free edition) should make rake running a lot more convenient than the usual alternative - i.e. navigating to the directory you need 'long hand' ;-)



    best wishes


    Huw Collingbourne



    SapphireSteel Software


    Ruby and Rails In Visual Studio


    www.sapphiresteel.com

Educational Content

Jesper Boeg on Priming Kanban

In this interview, Jesper Boeg, author of the new InfoQ book – Priming Kanban, discusses the keys to using Kanban effectively, and how to get started if you are currently using other approaches.

New-age Transactional Systems - Not Your Grandpa's OLTP

John Hugg discusses high volume transaction processing applications with high and low frequency profiles, and how VoltDB can be used for that purpose.

Cool Code

Kevlin Henney examines code samples to see what can be learned from them starting from the premise that one won’t write great code unless he knows how to read it.

Collaboration: At the Extremities of Extreme

Jason Ayers share the observations he made watching a team of developers collaborating in real time on the same code base, pushing XP, pair programming and continuous integration to their extremes.

Yesod Web Framework

Michael Snoyman presents Yesod, a web framework written in Haskell and containing a web server, templating, ORM, libraries (templating, gravatar, etc.).

Transactions without Transactions

Richard Kreuter and Kyle Banker on how to avoid classical RDBMS transactional systems by using compensation mechanisms, transactional messaging or transactional procedures.

Attila Szegedi on JVM and GC Performance Tuning at Twitter

Attila Szegedi talks about performance tuning Java and Scala programs at Twitter: how to approach GC problems, the importance of asynchronous I/O, when to use MySQL/Cassandra/Redis, and much more.

10 tips on how to prevent business value risk

One category of risk that project teams need to ensure they address is business value failure – delivering a product that fails to provide value for the business investor.