This is discussion has been very helpful to me: I’m learning Rails
(and Ruby), so far I’ve primarily been using Emacs and command line.
But I also I had given NetBeans (and a couple of other IDEs) a brief
try on the off-chance that I was missing out on something that I would
like to have.
I found that Emacs and shell window works well for the way I work,
though. :). I’m using EmacsW32+nXhtml (see:
http://ourcomments.org/Emacs/nXhtml/doc/nxhtml.html#summary) and a
shell window. 
On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 15:55, Marnen Laibow-Koser
removed_email_address@domain.invalid wrote:
Because console editors are great for text-only environments, but are
less generally usable than GUI editors. I love Emacs in SSH sessions or
for quick edits in the Terminal, but I go nuts very quickly when I have
to use it on a GUI box. There are many things that simply work better
with a mouse and a menu-driven interface. No console-only editor can
give me that, and therefore no console-only editor is suitable to use on
a GUI box by my standards. (No, Xemacs is not the answer – it sucks.)
Interesting. I’m of almost opposite mind: I prefer to use emacs on a
GUI platform; I hop back-and-forth between being in a “keyboard only”
mode when doing stuff in emacs to “mousing, mouse cut-n-paste, etc.”
mode when I flip to some other window. If I have to use emacs in the
non-gui environment, I feel locked in, and if it goes on for very
long, I’ll find some way to switch to a gui environment to do the
work.
On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 22:23, Agoofin removed_email_address@domain.invalid wrote:
I don’t use it to run the server or do the tests but for the simple
pleasure of jumping between controller method to view just cannot be
beat.
Indeed. That was one thing I was looking for when I trying out
NetBeans. I was finding that the way the files are arranged for a
Rails application and switching amongst them in dired was painful.
On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 22:23, Agoofin removed_email_address@domain.invalid wrote:
Windoze - try Notepad++, very lightweight and easy to use.
A good recommendation. Its lightweight, follows the windows paradigm,
has syntax highlighting that is easily configurable. It tempted me
away from Emacs for a while.
On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 22:23, Agoofin removed_email_address@domain.invalid wrote:
But in the end, it’s your preference. Find something you’re comfortable with and go with it.
Very true. Requires a fair bit of investment of time, also. Trying out
new IDEs, editors, tools, working in them long enough to determine
whether they help or hinder the way you work, and then learning the
one you like more thoroughly.
–
As I write this, I’m trying to recall what I didn’t like about
NetBeans, and realizing I can’t explain precisely, which makes me
wonder if I should try it again more objectively.
Iain
What Rails command line related activity