Agile Web Development with Rails

shell.You can enable thisbehaviorin older versions ofWindows using thefreely availableTweakUI power toyfromMicrosoft.

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DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS

toplay with thebleeding-edgeversion ofyourapplication.Thiskind of trans-parencyis agreatway of ensuring thatyourprojectisn�ftgoing off the tracks.

Editors

I write my Rails programs using a programmer�fs editor. I�fve found over the years that different editors work best with different languages and environ-ments. For example, I�fm writing this chapter using Emacs, as its Filladapt mode is unsurpassed when it comes to neatly formatting XML as I type. But Emacsisn�ftidealforRailsdevelopment:I useTextMatefor that.Although the choice of editor is a personal one, here are some suggestions of features to lookforin aRails editor.

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Support for syntax highlighting of Ruby and HTML. Ideally support for .rhtml .les(aRails .leformatthat embedsRuby snippetswithinHTML).

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Supportof automaticindentationand reindentationofRuby source.This is more than an aestheticfeature:having an editorindentyourprogram as you type is the best way of spotting bad nesting in your code. Being ableto reindentisimportant whenyou refactoryour code and move stuff. (TextMate�fs abilityto reindent whenitpastes codefromthe clipboardis very convenient.)

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DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS

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Support for insertion of common Ruby and Rails constructs. You�fll be writinglots of short methods:if theIDE creates method skeletons with a keystroke or two,you can concentrate on theinteresting stuffinside.

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Good .le navigation. As we�fll see, Rails applications are spread across many .les.6 You need an environment that helps you navigate quickly between these:you�fll add aline to a controller toload up a value, switch to the view to add aline todisplayit, and then switch to the test to verify you did it all right. Something like Notepad, where you traverse a File Opendialogtoselecteach.letoedit,just won�ft cutit.Ipersonallyprefer acombinationof atreeviewof.lesinasidebar,asmall set ofkeystrokes that�fllletme .nd a .le(or .les) inadirectory treeby name,and some built-in smarts that knows how to navigate (say) between a controller action and the corresponding view.

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Name completion. Names in Rails tend to be long. A nice editor will let you type the .rst few characters and then suggest possible completions toyou at the touch of akey.

We hesitate to recommend speci.c editors because we�fve used only a few in earnest and we�fll undoubtedlyleave someone�fsfavorite editor off thelist.Nev-ertheless, tohelpyouget started with something other thanNotepad,here are some suggestions.

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TextMate (http://macromates.com/): The Ruby/Rails editor of choice on MacOSX.

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RadRails(http://www.radrails.org/): An integrated Rails development envi-ronmentbuilt on theEclipseplatform that runs onWindows,MacOSX, andLinux.(It won an awardforbeingthebest open sourcedevelopertool based onEclipsein2006.)

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jEdit(http://www.jedit.org/): A fullyfeatured editor with support for Ruby. Ithas extensiveplugin support.