Ruby support in NetBeans

I just downloaded the latest version of NetBeans. Version 3.8, that is.  It has support for Ruby, PHP, Python, Java, and C++.  So I might have to start getting back into Ruby programming.

Ruby podcasts in iTunes store

If you want to learn more about Ruby, there are some podcasts about it in the iTMS.

Ruby seems out of the spotlight this year

I only know of two Ruby projects that garnered much attention last year:  Twitter, which gets a lot of buzz, and RubyCocoa which is still a work-in-progress but will hopefully get completed in the next year or two.

I have been focusing my programming skill enhancement efforts this year in Objective-C/Cocoa programming and extending my abilities to adjuncts to the Java EE standard. Products in those two areas look like they will get the most attention from software product customers this year.

Consequently, I have not been doing a lot with Ruby lately.

Ruby + NetBeans = Ruby IDE

NetBeans support for Ruby development has been around a pretty long time.

Sun's Java developers have had a non-grudging admiration for Ruby on Rails for years.

They liked it so much, in fact, that Sun bought up the JRuby effort.

The NetBeans 6.x IDE can support JRuby (Ruby running on Java VM) or regular Ruby development.

In the blog post NetBeans + Ruby = true you can see that NetBeans has had some support for Ruby for over a couple of years.

What is really exciting about Ruby support in NetBeans today is not that it simply exists but how much support for Ruby is in NetBeans now. Rails development, Gems - all that stuff that Ruby programmers take for granted but maybe would not expect to see in a Java-hosted IDE.

Nevertheless, it is there. Sun's employees/contributors have gone way beyond just adding a checkmark for the Ruby feature in the NetBeans IDE.

I have not written any Ruby code in several months

I really have not written or looked at any Ruby programs since late last year.

I feel a little uneasy with that because it is such a potent language. I am sure I do not want to get rusty at it, nor stall my on-going growth at using the language.

Any experienced, mature programmer should have Ruby and/or Python - or something like them - on their desktops.

No one programming language does all jobs well. Most programming languages have a set of things they do very well - better than most other languages can.

My gut instincts - call it intuition - tell me that Ruby is going to turn a new page and surge in popularity/mass-awareness next year sometime. I think 2008 is going to be the year that Ruby is recognized as a major hit.

I rather suspect that when that happens, the story will come out that 2006 and 2007 is when a lot of amazing Ruby programs got quietly deployed and took root.

Sun brings forth a new Ruby IDE from NetBeans

Here is a pretty cool screenshot of a new Ruby IDE:

http://blogs.sun.com/tor/resource/ruby-editing.png

The post that describes what the picture means - which is just what it looks like it means - is here:

http://blogs.sun.com/tor/entry/netbeans_and_ruby_is_true

Sun is making huge strides in adding Ruby support to NetBeans, in part, because they hired the JRuby (Ruby in Java) developers a few months ago.

The Tor Norby weblog post entitled Welcome JRuby for details.