Yesterday I downloaded the NetBeans 6.0 M10 release. I was mainly interested in how it would preform as a Ruby on Rails Editor. Well, 2 words, I frickin' love it! Ok, that was four words but, but in my opinion it is that good.

Until recently I have been using Eclipse as my editor for Java projects. I used the Visual Editor Project for Eclipse, although a little difficult to use, it brought a GUI builder for multiple widget sets and languages. The VEP allowed me to fairly easily use SWT widgets to allow my applications to have the native look and feel on each operating system. However the recent Europa release of Eclipse does not support the VEP, or, should I say, the VEP is not compatible with Europa. I find that Eclipse is starting to become clunky and awkward and the UI is getting cluttered and outdated. I find myself using NetBeans for my Java development more and more. With no real GUI builder in Eclipse for the time being(Yes, I could use Eclipse 3.2 w/ VEP, and yes, I could try and find another GUI plugin, but I shouldn't have to), I could see myself using NetBeans for pretty much everything. Admittedly, I have not used the 6.0 M10 preview release for a Java project yet.

As for a Ruby editor there really hasn't been much for the Windows or Linux users. The choices where pretty limited. There is Rad Rails, which is a good idea but it never really worked that great for me. I found too many bugs to be productive with it. There is jEdit, which seems to be a pretty popular choice from what I have been reading on other blogs, especially for Linux. Again, I didn't much care for it. And, of course, there is the widely known TextMate for Mac OS. Before now I was using SciTe, which gets installed with Ruby. It is alright, but not great. Now there is NetBeans 6.0. I instantly loved it as soon as I started working with it. It is very clean and easy to use. Everything is where you would expect it to be. I am very excited about this, yes I am a geek.

The Netbeans Ruby on Rails editor comes installed and ready to go when you download the Full version, there are three diferent versions. The editor Supports code highlighting and limited code completion. One of the little things that I like is when you generate a Model, Controller, etc. It automatically opens the companion files that where created. For example when I create a model it will open the model file, the migrate file and the test file. Saves some time so I don't have to hunt through and open them each individually.

Netbeans Generator

The other thing that I really like is the plugin manager. Right click on the project in the Projects list and click Rails Plugins. This allows you to manage plugins. It will even show of plugins you can install.

I encourage you to download the preview release and give it a shot. Unfortunately the stable version is not actually released until later this year. There are a few good tutorials to get you started.

Web Log in 10 Minutes
http://www.netbeans.org/kb/60/ruby/rapid-ruby-weblog.html

Putting Flickr on Rails
http://www.netbeans.org/kb/60/ruby/flickr-on-rails.html

NetBeans RoR Documentation
http://www.netbeans.org/kb/60/ruby/index.html