Ruby on Rails IDE for Windows

Question

Which one do you prefer for serious Ruby on Rails development?

I've been using NetBeans for PHP and Java for more than year, which works really great, but the Rails support isn't imho good enough. I often have problems with code completiton, where it doesn't find most of imported gems and functions and it's also pretty slow.

On the other side, I tried JetBrains RedMine, which is super fast compared to NetBeans, but I don't have such long time experience with JetBrains.

Lots of people recommend TextMate, so I've tried its Windows port e-TextEditor, which I think is some sort like PSPad ... good for small edits, but not so convenient for big projects.

The last I found people mentioning is Aptana Studio, but I have absolutely no experience with that one.

So my question is, which of these IDEs do you recommend for development of enterprise class applications ON WINDOWS.

The reasony why I'm asking is if there are any problems that you came across while using that particular IDE, that might not be obvious when someone just tries it

Please answer only if you have some experience in the field, not only if you "tried it"

btw I don't think this one is a dupe, since it's much more specific than those other questions

Answer 1

I use Netbeans 6.7 for my work. It's much better than all the other systems except RubyMine, and it's free. It does a good job of code highlighting in the views, and manages multiple projects well. It also doesn't lock up when you check out a different branch (using git)

I tried RubyMine, and I liked it better, particularly the RSpec integration, but not enough better to buy a license.

I don't really use the code completion much, so I don't have the problems you describe, but I don't think Aptana is any better. RubyMine is better at that stuff, so if that's important to you, give it a try.

Answer 2

I'm biased, but I think you should also have a look at Komodo IDE:

http://www.activestate.com/komodo/

It has Ruby debugging and code intelligence. Using the Rails project template, it's quite easy to create and debug Rails apps:

http://docs.activestate.com/komodo/5.1/tutorial/railstut.html

If you don't need the debugger (and a few other goodies), Komodo Edit might work for you. It's free:

http://www.activestate.com/komodo%5Fedit/