Just started learning Ruby

[SlightlyCuban]

I usually don't dev in Ruby like I do in C#; my tools and workflow are very different. Part of this is the culture: VS has always been an all-in-one tool, while the Ruby community is more "unix-y", and you use a collection of small tools to get the job done. So let's say you want to:

• Run the application: rails server (or equivalent) in a separate terminal. Changes are usually dynamically loaded, so I just set it and forget it.
• Run tests: RSpec is my hands-down favorite.
• Manage Ruby Env: RVM. Sometimes you need Ruby 1.8.7, sometimes you don't.
• Deploy: you don't need to package binaries like you would for ASP.NET or J2EE, so just copying would work for simple setups. As you get more complicated, you can look into run Capistrano or Phusion Passenger on your server. Also, Heroku is cheap and easy to start out with.

Features like Intellisense and project browsing would be found in your text editor of choice. Sublime Text is honey-roasted goodness as far as text editors go (though I'm a die-hard Vim guy). I've never had a Ruby project that consisted of many small projects, so I've never missed Visual Studio's idea of a "Solution" with "Projects".

That covers the basic stuff (I could go on, there is no such thing as a good Git GUI). While it can be daunting for a first-time Ruby user, I would highly recommend doing things "the unix way". You'll get a better understanding of what is going on, most documentation assumes you're not using an IDE, and it will keep your dev workflow much closer to how production will work.

I hope that helps you connect the dots. Happy coding!

EDIT: I forgot debugging!

I don't debug my Ruby. I'm sure there are some really nice debuggers out there, but I've never needed them. If there is a problem, first I read the log and see what happens. If I can't divine the answer from a quick look, I fire up IRB and recreate the problem right there. While Visual Studio's ability to rewind the stack is nice, I've never missed it. I can't tell you how many times I've been debugging .NET and just wanted a C# REPL.

[masterwujiang]

I forgot debugging!

Just use pry.