Ruby IDEs For Web Developers
Ruby on Rails is a server-side web development framework written using Ruby programming. It is an open-source web app framework and comes under the MIT license. Rails is a model view controller (MVC) framework.
It provides a default structure for a database, a web service, and web pages to the users. Rails also facilitate and encourage the use of various web standards. It facilitates the use of JSON or XML for data transfer and HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for web page display and user interface.
More about Ruby on Rails for web development:
Ruby on Rails is open-source software, so not only it is free to use, but users can also make changes to it to make it better. The main reason for the popularity of Rails for Web Development lies in the speed and ease of use that it provides to the developers.
It also allows users to quickly apply the changes made in the application. This avoids the time-consuming steps that are normally associated with web development. It runs easily on most of the Web Servers supporting CGI. The framework supports some popular servers such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, DB2, and Oracle.
What is an IDE:
An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a software application used for programming in computers. IDE provides comprehensive facilities to programmers for the development of software. An IDE mainly consists of 3 different parts.
The first part is the source code editor that provides an editor for writing the codes from the program. The next section is the build automation tool that principally compiles the codes by the programmer. The third part is a debugger whose main job is to test or debug the program for any errors in the programming code. There are IDE’s available for several programming languages such as Java, Python, C, C++, and others too.
Nowadays most of the modern IDE has an intelligent code completion. The IDE design helps the programmer by maximizing productivity by providing tight-knit components. These components have a similar user interface that allows the programmer to easily use them.
Some IDEs contain either a compiler or an interpreter such as SharpDevelop and Lazarus. While some other IDE such as NetBeans and Eclipse contains both the compiler and interpreter for the execution of code. Some IDEs are primarily designed for a specific programming language.
However, there are many multiple-language IDE that allows users to do programming for multiple languages using just one IDE.
Basic Uses of an Integrated Development Environment:
The use of an IDE depends on the programming language. However, here are some of the basic uses of an IDE.
- An IDE allows the programmer to instantly navigate to a type without getting worried about the project.
- It also allows the programmer to easily navigate to other members by using them as hyperlinks.
- It also allows programmers to automatically generate a code depending upon previous codes.
- An IDE also organizes the different imports by the programmer and also adds some relevant imports.
- It also gives warnings while the user is typing and some error occurs.
- An IDE also keeps the view of files, errors, or warnings, and source code on the same screen that makes programmers work easy.
- It also makes the running of unit tests easy as a programmer has to run the code from the same window.
- IDE also allows the programmer to navigate directly to the compile-time error or run time exception directly from the error details.
Now, after knowing about the Ruby on Rails framework and IDE, let’s know about some of the best-known Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the Ruby on Rails web application framework. So, here is a list of the Top 10 IDE for Rails.
RubyMine:
RubyMine is a full-featured IDE for Ruby that includes most of the modern set of features that a user will need. These features will facilitate users with rapid web development. RubyMine comes from the house of the Jet Brains.
Jet Brains is one of the leading and familiar programming language development tools names. RubyMine works well with most of the major frameworks such as Ruby 2.4 and Rails 5, Puppet, AngularJS, RubyMotion, and many more.
It also provides seamless support for front-end technology development. RubyMine also provides support for JavaScript, ERB, HTML, SASS, Less, Coffee Script, and other development tools. It also provides support for code refraction, debugging, and unit testing. RubyMine also offers seamless integration to some other systems such as Git, Mercurial & SVN, SQL or database, and many others.
NetBeans IDE:
NetBeans IDE is one of the most used IDE for different programming languages. It is a faster and smarter way to code for programmers and developers. NetBeans allows users to quickly and easily develop desktop, mobile, and web apps with Java, HTML 5, PHP, C/C++, etc. It is available for free with a large community of users and developers. It comes from the house of Oracle.
VIM:
VIM is one of the old and classic IDE and is also very popular among its users. Its popularity is mainly among the developers who love to use the keyboard (no mouse) for lightning-fast coding. VIM is free to use IDE and it is available under the open-source software license by GPL. Its popularity is known from the fact that many engineers at Facebook have used VIM during the early development of Facebook itself.
VIM is known as one of the most feature-rich free text editors. Users can easily convert it into a powerful Ruby development environment through the right customization and configuration. There are also some plugins like vim-ruby for Ruby Scripting and vim-rails for Ruby on Rails web development.
Aptana Studio:
The next IDE on our list of 10 Best IDE for Ruby on Rails is Aptana Studio. It is another one of the best in class Ruby on Rails IDE which comes from the company named Appcelerator. It is available as an open-source and free to use for Ruby development. It is faster, easily customizable, and comes with some new features to help developers to boost productivity.
Sublime Text 3:
Sublime Text 3 is one of the most powerful cross-platform lightweight code editors available for programmers. Although it is an editor with the use of plugins it can be used as a fully-featured IDE. It includes the quality and simplicity of the sublime text and also includes the powers of Python in one place.
Sublime Text 3 core is a lightweight, configurable, and feature-rich IDE. It gets its powers to use via the use of plugins. There are various plugins available that users can use to transform the text editor into a full-featured Sublime IDE for Ruby programming.
Cloud9:
Cloud9 is the next IDE on the list of 10 best IDE for Ruby on Rails. It offers IDE for almost every programming language that also includes Ruby. Cloud9 is becoming very popular among medium to large enterprises very fast. Many companies such as Heroku, Soundcloud, Mailchimp, and Mozilla are some of the popular users that are already using Cloud9.
Users can easily access the commands in the Cloud9 development environment for Ruby on Rails. Users will have to just open the command and then type the program name following ruby. For example ruby demo123.rb. The user gets all the features that they will require for Ruby on Rails development such as file management, text editor, preview, and many more features.
Komodo:
Komodo IDE is another cross-platform IDE that is from the Activestate company. Although it is a commercial product it also offers an open-source free version by the name Komodo Edit. This version of Komodo IDE is available for platforms like Mac, Windows, and Linux.
The fully-featured Komodo IDE is offered free of cost to qualified educational institutions. The teachers and professors of these institutions can use it in the labs for teaching purposes. It also provides a discount to students who want to buy the license.
Atom:
Atom is one of the highly configurable text editors that comes from the house of GitHub folks. It is also available under the license of MIT and it is free to use for personal as well as commercial development. Atom has gained popularity very fast and it also boasts a large community.
This community helps to keep the editor updated with new features regularly. Right now, many packages and plugins are available for Atom that can be used to customize and extend the core features of Atom Editor.
Atom is available for most Operating systems like Windows, Ubuntu (Debian Linux), Fedora 22+, Mac, and Red Hat Linux. Developers can use several plugins that are available to turn it entirely into a Ruby editor for Windows or Mac OS.
Emacs:
Most of the Ruby on Rails projects do not need a resource-heavy and full-featured IDE for development. A lightweight and mature text editor with the right configuration will help the developers to complete the development.
Emacs is a stunner and most lovable editor for Ruby scripting and Ruby on Rails web programming. Emacs is also available for free to use. The editor also allows developers to customize and configure it according to their needs.
Arcadia:
Arcadia is a lightweight IDE for Ruby. It is also written completely in Ruby, using the classic TCL/TK GUI toolkit. Arcadia comes with very good features such as script editing, running, and debugging support. It also includes support for source browsing, syntax highlighting, and code completion. Arcadia also has support for cross-platform on any system where Ruby is installed.
Ruby is a general-purpose programming language. It is also often compared with Python in terms of readability and ease of understanding the syntax. Just like Python, Ruby is also a very popular programming language for learning among beginner candidates.
Ruby and Python do not have a comparison in terms of usage as Python has widespread applications while Ruby is mainly used for web programming.
So due to limited usage, there are not many IDEs for Ruby. However, in this article, I hope that readers will find an appropriate IDE for web development using Ruby on Rails.
Assume if you could execute Ruby development faster, and see an instant boost in your workflow.
or even better:
What if there were 7 best Ruby IDE and editors available to choose from.
…and each of them could make your development quicker and easier?
You’d probably be pumped to read about them.
Lucky for you, that’s exactly what I’m going to share with you in this post:
Top 7 Best Ruby IDE and editors. IDEs and editors can become an unparalleled ally when it comes to code completion and visual assistance for debugging and building a Ruby app.
1. Ruby mine
RubyMine is one of the Best modern & easy to use Ruby IDE. So you Produce high-quality code more efficiently. Rubymine includes first-class support for Ruby and Rails, JavaScript and CoffeeScript, ERB and HAML, CSS, Sass and Less, and more.
Features
- Language specific-aware syntax & error highlighting.
- Code formatting, code completion, and quick documentation.
- Smart search to jump to any class.
- One-click to switch to the declaration.
- Powerful debugger with a graphical UI for Ruby
- Seamless integration with tools like Rake Task Runner, Rails Generators, Bundler, RVM, Zeus, and others.
Rubymine is a premium IDE & comes with 30 days free trial. It also offers free plans for non-profit’s and school teachers, educational institutions.
2. Aptana RadRails
Aptana RadRails Provides Quick access to Ruby, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript structures, methods, elements, properties, tags & attributes. Aptana RadRails Supports your custom code as well.
Features
- Easily Set breakpoints, inspect variables, control execution.
- The integrated Ruby & Rails debugger assists you crush those bugs.
- See and navigate the structures in your file through this hierarchical outline of your Ruby or HTML page.
- Select nodes to jump to that location in the editor.
- Filter nodes to see collections that match patterns.
Aptana RadRails is free to use, open-source IDE for Ruby and Rails applications.
3. Emacs
Emacs is one of the most popular editors in the world. Emacs is more like a miniature operating system that happens to do text editing on the side. One of the main advantages of Emacs is that it is extremely extensible; the user can program its behavior in a Lisp variant called elisp.
Features
- Built-in Ruby support, in the style of Ruby Mode.
- Automatic TAGS generation in RAILS_ROOT directory.
- Quick access to the main configuration files
- Fast navigation in Rails root hierarchy
- Fast running of rails rake with autocomplete
Emacs is a free, open-source IDE for Ruby and Rails applications.
4. Sublime text
Sublime Text is a modern text editor used for coding, markup, and prose. You’ll love the smooth user interface, extraordinary features, and amazing performance.
Sublime text 3 have good Ruby support and can be extended with additional commands and text snippets to increase coding efficiency. This is one of the most popular code editors these days, although it has lost some momentum lately with users favoring other rising competitors such as GitHub’s very own Atom.
5. Atom
Developed by GitHub, the extremely customizable conditions and ease of installation of new packages have turned Atom into the IDE of choice for a lot of people.
Atom is a text editor that is modern, friendly, yet hackable to the core—a tool you can customize to do anything but also use productively without ever touching a config file.
Features
- Completion suggestions
- Outline view
- Jump to definition
- Linting using rubocop
6. Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code, a code editor backed by Microsoft, is gaining momentum as a serious contender in the Ruby medium.
This indicates that all the nice features we might want are already baked in, including syntax and error highlighting and automatic builds.
Features
- Automatic Ruby environment detection with help for rvm, rbenv, chruby, and asdf
- Lint support via RuboCop, Standard, and Reek
- Format support via RuboCop, Standard, Rufo, and RubyFMT
- Semantic code folding support
- Semantic highlighting support
- Basic Intellisense support
7. Vim
Vim is a highly configurable text editor developed to make creating and changing any sort of text very efficient.
It is a superset of Vi – is a very reliable and great text editor that is available for different platforms.
Features
- Vim is a command-line editor and therefore can be used for remote development.
- Substituting all string occurrences in 100MB+ files is fast and easy.
- vim is keyboard-based so it is more straightforward to understand.
- Vimscript offers a rich scripting functionality to develop upon the core of vim
Conclusion
Maybe your favorite Ruby IDE or editor is not listed here and you do not want to switch from your favorite code editor now.
But Picking Ruby IDE for the greatest efficiency and experience ought to be the main need for any programmer out there.
In my opinion, an IDE or text editor that matches your usage habits are best.
Mustafa Al Mahmud is the Founder of Gizmo Concept and also a professional Blogger, SEO Professional as well as Entrepreneur. He loves to travel and enjoy his free moment with family members and friends.