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Ruby in Steel - Free Edition includes Visual Studio

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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

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Community comments

  • Thats kind of misleading

    by Francois Ward,

    Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

    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.

  • Re: Thats kind of misleading

    by Huw Collingbourne,

    Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

    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

  • more work to do

    by jinliang hu,

    Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

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

  • Re: more work to do

    by Huw Collingbourne,

    Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

    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

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