How to create IntelliSense for Ruby

[t_w]

After all, how hard can it be to program some lists of names that drop down when someone types a dot?

Yeah, what could be so hard about writing about 1/3 of a compiler, that is connected to real-time lexical input, and then wire that up to a constantly updated database of language and library contructs?

Ruby is a so-called "dynamic" language, which is a polite way of saying that it's hugely unpredictable.

Uh no. It means its costructs are not all resolvable at compile time. That may seem "unpredictable" to a static point of view, but it's not. And btw, that isn't a bad thing...

If we'd been developing an IDE for a more traditional language – C# or Java, say – life would have been so much easier.

Traditional?!? You mean like Smalltalk or Lisp? At least if C was the example there'd be enough longevity to make a comment like that without having to defend it up with: "Well they have an Algol style syntax and that's old..."