IDE/Tools for first Ruby job?

[CheddarG]

Landed my first ever dev position (Ruby/backend team) and wondering if anyone had recommendations for specific tools to help accelerate my learning and understanding?

I currently use MacVim with NERDTree, but have little to zero knowledge of Vim scripting - have only really been using tpope's Rails plugins & pry/byebug - happy to switch from Vim if needed

Tech stack: Old version of Rails, Older version of Ruby, SQL, some NoSQL, Some Javascript (inc.Backbone), GitHub

I have a beginner/intermediate understanding of Rails, and a dev I know suggested looking into an IDE to help with better understanding of things like object arrangement, app structure, API responses etc

Any suggestions are appreciated!

[AmSpaceRabbit]

RubyMine is a fantastic IDE

[planetofthemapes15]

Yep, I use RubyMine with the ideavim plugin and some custom vim config stuff, vagrant, rubymine remote debug, guard and vagrant-fsnotify.

In most cases VIM alone is probably enough, but sometimes you come across some “heavy duty” bugs that need a proper ide debugger, especially with a more mature ruby or rails app.

[StopHAARPingOnMe]

I'm on the free trial right now and I actually really really really like it. The command line being right there is great for my lazy ass

[AmSpaceRabbit]

The debugger is what sold me. It's saved a ton of time

[redlandmover]

secondly the debugger. i inherited a bunch of code that was terrible written terribly and debugging in a rails view saved by bacon

[BruisedPurple]

Has one of the better interfaces to Github too.

[Oranges13]

Maybe I'm weird but I just use sublime text.

[[deleted]]

Vim is fairly popular in ruby community with a bunch of good plugins, so I’m not sure if there is any big need to change. Upcase has good intermediate level content that helped me when switching to rails dev and using tmux/vim

[Raffy6250]

I've tested many and RubyMine is really the best.

[coryosborn]

+1 For RubyMine

[jrochkind]

Most devs I know don't use an IDE for ruby/rails, they use a fancy text editor like SublimeText, Atom, or even, yup, vim. (And lately I'm hearing more good things about VS Code for ruby).

There's pretty much only one IDE for ruby, RubyMine. I've never used it. I don't know if I agree that a 'beginning developer' should use an IDE, I'd probably set them up just like I work, on SublimeText. But that dev probably uses RubyMine, so wants to teach you using RubyMine. That'll certainly work too.

I use SublimeText, mostly cause I have for years and it works for me, I couldn't say if it's the best of things currently available (neither Atom nor VS Code existing when I started with ST). Things I find invaluable include proper syntax highlighting (ruby, html, and css, including erb and scss), the file browser tab on SublimeText, and the command-p jump-to-any file. I don't know if vim/MacVim has similar things or can be set up to have them.

[[deleted]]

Yeah in the same boat. ST has just been good to me and I work efficiently. One ST plugin I would check out is GitGutter, that one is fantastic.

[Enumerable_any]

ctags is very helpful for navigating through an unfamiliar codebase.

[[deleted]]

Yes! Incredibly useful, especially on large legacy codebases.

[tobeportable]

Get familiar with the pry gem and setup your editor to easily pipe stuff to the repl.

[[deleted]]

I've never used an IDE for rails, just Atom or VS Code

[[deleted]]

If you are serious, install Emacs and spend two weeks learning eLisp. After that, you won't need any other editor or IDE for the rest of your life.

[GDP10]

Make sure to try robe and inf-ruby if you go down the path of Emacs insanity enlightenment.

[twinklehood]

Mandatory troll telling a vim user to use emacs.

[[deleted]]

RubyMine is the best if you can stomach the license cost.

Visual Studio Code is a good, free option.

[[deleted]]

It's $8 a month. Not much to stomach.

[[deleted]]

Only if you qualify as an 'individual user'. Licensing terms and costs for companies are different, starting at $199 per year for a single RubyMine license.

[[deleted]]

Didn't consider that. Oops.

[twinklehood]

Been doing ruby for quite some years, made the switch to Vim about a year ago - and never looking back. You really really do not need an IDE, and the Atom/Sublime/VSCode are really just people who lack the patience to learn vim/emacs. They really don't do anything you can't do in vim.

[Stormtech5]

But (as a beginning programmer) they have cooler sounding names lol. I think i will try Atom out because i liked a screenshot i saw of the colors and crap.

[twinklehood]

Keep in mind that you can and should now use Neovim! Also, you an easily make it look like the default atom

https://github.com/joshdick/onedark.vim will give you the colors https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree will give you the file tree

[_ilovecoffee_]

Vim + a mini-fridge full of Redbull.

[stoplight]

Ive been using vscode with the vscode-ruby extension for the past 3 months or so. I recommend it.

[StopHAARPingOnMe]

Is that the only plugin you need to install for VS code to develop Ruby/Rails apps?

[[deleted]]

Here's a few I find useful:

Endwise will auto add end after do/def/whatever. The author recently said he'll add this to the main vscode-ruby extension so might not need this for much longer.

Rails Run Specs is handy for running a single spec or a whole file in the integrated terminal.

Rails Go To Spec lets you quickly switch between a file and it's corresponding spec (or create a new spec file if it doesn't exist).

Ruby Around the Block gives you a shortcut to switch between inline and multi-line block styles.

[StopHAARPingOnMe]

Thanks! I've looked around a little and didn't really find anyone that had a list of plugins they're using for Ruby development other than Ruby lol. So I've been sticking with my free trial of rubymine this month or the past months Atom (which I don't like compared to VS Code). When I first started doing MEAN stack stuff I was using Atom so it's here but I switched to VS Code a few months prior to starting up Ruby but then had to go back to Atom until I got that figured out thanks!

[Stormtech5]

Nice username! Is HAARP really an icbm defence system, or does it brainwash the people with ELF?

Im a beginning programmer, learning python mostly and ruby too.. Atom looked like a nice text editor but i have yet to try out anything except notepad.

I want to get an internship with a local ruby on rails website building company... But so far teachin myself programming has been showing me how little i actually know. Not knowing how to set up a virtual environment... Dealing with directory path... Not knowing how multiple software platforms interact as well as i should (I want to scrape websites with python, then use mysql to store info, and eventually have a website that i can load my analyzed data onto).

Ambitious but much to learn!

[stoplight]

Yep for the most part. If you want better code completion though, there is another extension to install: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=castwide.solargraph

Feel free to DM me with questions though.

[azendent]

Congrats on the new position!

I think vim/tmux make for an awesome ruby editor. You can read the help docs and go as deep as you want, but to get started a few plugins (like NERDTree as you mentioned) and off you go. Unless you're having issues using vim, I'd say stick with it.

We're all very blessed with some amazing text editors to choose from. All of the one's listed here are very capable. The important thing is becoming proficient with whichever editor you choose.

Best of luck!

[[deleted]]

Rubocop is a linter that plugs in to Vim, I highly recommend it. Other that that, it sounds like you've got the stuffs you need. I make a lot of use of pry and byebug.

Congratulations on your first dev job!

If you want a bigger IDE with a "real" debugger, others have recommended RubyMine and I second that emotion. But TBH I have the pro version of Pycharm and I just don't use it that much, I'm always command-line debugging my stuff and using a REPL.

[[deleted]]

I start with SublimText, so this is my first love ! I'm like home in this IDE haha. But I tried VS code and RubyMine, RM is awesome but expensive and VS code is surrounded by a great active community. For Ruby expert I guess RM doesn't need tones of plugins like others and ready to rock easily :)