From: ptkwt@... (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2005-08-07T08:06:07+09:00
Subject: Re: ANN: Ruby support is (finally) in ActiveState Komodo on OS X

This is good news.  The Ruby community has been speculating about 
ActiveState supporting Ruby for several years now.  Yet more evidence that 
Ruby has finally 'arrived' (though, for a lot of us Ruby arrived years 
ago).

Phil

In article <1123363948.388376.129660@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
Eric Promislow <eric.promislow@gmail.com> wrote:
>Hi.
>
>Last week at OSCON ActiveState announced an alpha for Komodo 3.x, our
>multi-language IDE.  The main reason for the launch was that after
>a year or so of relentless requests, we finally ported Komodo to
>OS X.
>
>You can get it now without reading any further here:
>
>http://activestate.com/Products/Komodo/beta.plex
>
>We've been quieter about the fact that this version introduces
>support for Ruby.  This includes these features:
>
>+ an integrated debugger -- simple breakpoints, variable
>  inspectors/modifiers, etc.
>
>+ the sort of editing facilities you expect in an IDE:
>  - colorizing
>  - automatic indentation
>  - de-indenting on keywords like 'end', 'else', 'rescue', etc.
>  - code-folding
>
>+ syntax-checking as you type:
>  - Basically we periodically invoke `ruby -c` to check the current
>  buffer, and display any errors it reports with red squigglies
>  under the offending text.  The code-folder also helps make
>  missing 'ends' obvious.
>
>+ a class browser that lets you move to modules, classes,
>and browsers with a click or two.
>
>Some of you might know that Komodo's editor is based on Scintilla (an
>open-source editor based at http://www.scintilla.org).  I rewrote the
>old lexer, which for some crazy reason was based on Python.  The new
>one now supports all those Perlisms like here-documents, %-strings,
>and in-line regular expressions.
>
>Now for the catches...
>
>The debugger isn't working with Rails yet.  I am close to having
>it support Rails test files.  I did figure out how to support
>mod_perl debugging in Komodo, so I'd be really surprised if
>catching a Rails session would be harder.
>
>I recommend at least 1GB of memory to run Komodo.  I've been
>running it (and developing for it) with 256MB, and the beach
>ball often kept me company.  I'm at 1GB now, and it does
>perform better.
>
>I should also mention that I haven't had time yet to work on
>multi-byte issues with Ruby.  In Komodo 3.1 we worked on
>support for multi-byte programs in Perl and Python, and made
>sure non-ASCII, or for that matter non-latin1, characters
>appeared in the editor and related widgets correctly.  If
>you care about this issue, this release might be pre-alpha
>in terms of meeting your needs.  Please let us know via the
>links at the end of this post.
>
>We also didn't have time to turn on the autocomplete feature,
>but we do plan to integrate info from analyzing RDoc and
>code to implement the usual autocomplete features you see in
>IDEs.  Try Komodo with Perl, Python, Tcl, or PHP for an example,
>if you're curious how it will look with Ruby.
>
>OK, I won't use the "excited" word, since I am a developer.  But I've
>had a lot of fun working with this language to get it in Ruby, and I'm
>happy that ActiveState management is, well, excited that we're making
>it a first-class member of the family.  It really is a fun language to
>program in.  The only actual Ruby code in Komodo is the debugger
>itself (which we ship -- it's in <installdir>/dbgp/rubylib/rdbgp.rb).
>Bug reports and patches are welcome.  If you are curious about the
>debugger, you can get the spec for the DBGP protocol at
>http://www.xdebug.org/docs-dbgp.php
>
>We welcome your bug reports, suggestions, and insights.  Copying
>and pasting from the main announcement:
>
>    We'll be using the komodo-beta email list for discussion of the OS
>X
>    port.  If you are on that list and do not wish to receive emails
>    about the OS X alpha's and beta's, you can unsubscribe from the
>    email list via the link below.
>
>    Get the alpha: http://www.ActiveState.com/Komodo/OSX
>    Join the list:
>http://listserv.ActiveState.com/mailman/listinfo/komodo-beta
>    Log a bug: http://bugs.activestate.com/Komodo
>    Write a letter: komodo-feedback@activestate.com
>
>Thanks for your time,
>
>-- 
>Eric Promislow    ericp@activestate.com
>