Issue
Is Rails development really this hard on Windows? I'm a PHP developer looking forwards to using Rails (mainly because every single PHP framework I've tried has some quirk that I just hate).
I downloaded Aptana Studio (w/ RadRails) as it seemed to be a good solution (and because I love anything Eclipse-based). But that's where the problems begin - upon creating a project (called "test", using sqlite3), the first problem I hit is some "sqlite3 is missing" error. So I Google around a bit and install sqlite3-ruby with gem. I still got some error - but somehow managed to fix it. So it seems to work, but is this really it? Some environment that barely seems to work and has a lot of problems (see this)?
In some other question, I saw the suggestion to run the project in a VM instead and edit it from Windows. Sounds like a good idea - but the two major Rails IDE's (RadRails, NetBeans, unless there's more) seem to want to run their own server in Windows. What would be the best setup for them/how would I set up a project in them if I'd run a Linux Rails stack in a VM instead?
Note that I'd rather not work without an IDE - upon trying one for PHP, I instantly became completely dependent (sigh) on them - and since I've never really used Ruby (or Rails) before, having code completion would be a major help.
So what are your suggestions? Run in Windows or Windows & Linux stack in VM? Any other tips?
Thanks!
Solution
I really Recommend starting with InstantRails. Its quick and lets you start coding in 2 minutes, which is the time to extract the archive.
Our company has 3 developers using RoR on Windows. We started out using InstantRails. Eventually we all replaced it with the Ruby One Click Installer and MySQL, so we could use the same database instead of hosting locally. After setting those up you need to install Rails, which can be done from the command prompt:
gem install rails
We just changed the database.yml file and all our exisiting code ran exactly the same as before.
We use two editors e for regular work and NetBeans for debugging. I find that the NetBeans auto-complete is painfully slow and marginally useful.
Development has been going very well, with no issues on windows. The only thing I listed that costs money is e, but the free Scite editor that comes with Ruby also works nicely.
Edit: Also, the Agile Web Development PDF is a vital tool. I love autocomplete in Visual studio, but having this book is the next best thing for rails. Especially the PDF because the index has clickable links that navigate you straight to what you are looking for. It also costs money, but is completely worth it.
Answered By - Tilendor