From: John Wells <lists@...>
Date: 2005-04-28T22:03:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby and IDE

Rob . said:
> What's missing from the Ruby IDE space is an editor let's you
> manipulate Ruby at the syntax level. For Java, modern IDEs let me
> think in terms like "method complete", "find declaration", "find
> usages", "extract variable", "rename member", "extract method",
> "change method signature", "go to last edit", "go to last location",
> etc. jEdit's Ruby Editor Plugin is evolving into this style of IDE.

AMEN!  Everything you've mentioned above makes Eclipse such a powerful
boon to our Java development.  For example, I can highlight any method or
field and hit F3 and instantly be taken to where that entity was declared,
in *any* included file.  This is POWER.

Regarding Lothar's comment about this being time consuming...it's time
well spent.  I've seen other IDEs for other languages handle this by
building a database of all includes on first run or on project creation,
and then giving the user the ability of rebuilding this database at will. 
I'm happy to waste some time building and rebuilding this type of database
to gain these features.  Please consider supporting the features Rob
mentions in ArachnoRuby...I've been very pleased with my evaluation so far
but the lack of these is a show stopper when considering an IDE purchase,
if that IDE doesn't endeavor to support them.

In reply to Rob, I'm curious why you've opted to go the jEdit route and to
not get involved with the RubyEclipse plugin.  I'm a long time jEdit user
(have contributed a plugin as well:
http://sourceillustrated.com/jasperjedit), but Eclipse IMHO has many of
the necessary scaffolding for the features you mentioned before already
there, while jEdit can be more of a pain to assemble just the right
plugins, etc.  I personally would love to see more of a community effort
in regards to Ruby for Eclipse.  jEdit is nice as an editor with IDE-like
features, but Eclipse is truly an IDE in every sense of the word.

Just my two cents.

Thanks,
John