[ruby-talk:14002] Visual SlickEdit

I have been using Visual SlickEdit (VSE) with Ruby since I began programming in Ruby
(actually for all my programming needs) It works quite well out of the box, with a little
encouragement.

Add this to your "user.vlx" file for color coding.

[Ruby]
idchars=$@a-zA-Z 0-9_
case-sensitive=y
styles=xhex dqbackslash dqbackslashml sqbackslash sqbackslashml
keywords= __FILE__ __LINE__ alias and begin BEGIN break case class def defined?
keywords= do else elsif end END ensure false for if in module next nil not
keywords= or redo rescue retry return self super then true undef unless
keywords= until when while yield
linecomment=#

Add this to your "project.slk" file to activate the compile and execute build commands for
standalone Ruby files (those not in a project).

[.rb]
compile=
copts: concur|capture|clear|
menu: Compile:&Compile
cmd: ruby -c "%f"
otheropts:
make=
copts: concur|capture|
menu: Build:&Build
cmd: 
otheropts:
rebuild=
copts: concur|capture|
menu: Rebuild:&Rebuild
cmd: 
otheropts:
debug=
copts: |
menu: Debug:&Debug
cmd: 
otheropts:
execute=
copts: concur|capture|clear|
menu: Execute:E&xecute
cmd: ruby "%f"
otheropts:
user1=
copts: |hide|
menu: User 1:User 1
cmd: 
otheropts:
user2=
copts: |hide|
menu: User 2:User 2
cmd: 
otheropts:
includedirs=
reffile=

These may need some updates as I put them together right after I started using Ruby, but
seem to work quite well as is.

The default error handling seems sufficient in most cases capturing any errors from the ruby
command (with the above [.rb] changes) and allowing the normal "next error" key sequence to
jump you to the proper file, line, and sometimes column relating to the error. Basically you can
edit, compile, execute, and debug Ruby code from within the VSE environment.

The sections noted above do not give you syntax expansions or Ruby source code file
tagging. Syntax expansions are relatively easy to add. Tagging is a little more complicated.
I just haven't gotten around to doing them yet, but I have asked MicroEdge to add full
VSE support for Ruby. This would include syntax expansions, tagging, and more. Send them
your request also at [e-mail].

You can download a  30 day trial of VSE at:

http://www.slickedit.com/download.htm

You have almost complete control over the VSE environment so experiment. I have 3 tools bars
(in addition to the menu bar) which incorporate almost all VSE menu commands I can investigate
how to publish here if there is any interest. Be sure to look into using projects in VSE, one of its
best features.

Happy coding.