i’m playing with rails as a personal side project and could use some
advice on setting up a productive development platform. the target
for the project is linux. for development, i have access to windows
pcs and the console of a remote linux box. i could use emacs on the
remote linux box but since i am green think i should take advantage of
an IDE.
how realistic is it to develop on windows and deploy on linux? is
there some insta-syncing technology that would allow me to edit on
windows and test on linux (over ssh)? TIA
I am doing as you have described – developing on Windows and
deploying on Linux.
My first deployment was hard, time-consuming, and required a fair
amount of trial and error. However, now that I have a handle on it,
life has been pretty easy.
I am using Capistrano to deploy. When I have a new version to upload
I simply type “rake deploy” and I’m done. Capistrano uses ssh to
handle the uploads.
The two biggest issues were:
Line endings. You need to make sure your files all use Unix line
endings. Windows line endings in files (CR LF) cause RoR to wreck.
Configuration files (environment.rb, etc.). It took a little
playing around to find the right settings. I imagine this would be
the case no matter where you do your development.
I have found the RoR community to be very helpful. As long as you are
willing to do a little legwork you should be able to get the help you
need.
so i sense a startup cost of getting the windows box set up with rails
and figuring the frictions of transferring code between the two
platforms, but once past that early phase the experience is pleasant?
so i sense a startup cost of getting the windows box set up with rails
and figuring the frictions of transferring code between the two
platforms, but once past that early phase the experience is pleasant?
There are reasons to do that, yet there are also reasons to…
share the Linux drive with Samba
share the Linux GUI with cygwin-x
point your favorite Windows editor at the Linux drive from Windows
drive the Linux Webrick and ‘rake’ in a Konsole in cygwin-x
That way if your favorite editor happens to work in Windows you are not
screwed.
oh i like this idea – this is along the lines of what i had in mind
originally. i’ll try this first, with some modifications (putty over
ssh versus cygwin-x).
oh i like this idea – this is along the lines of what i had in mind
originally. i’ll try this first, with some modifications (putty over
ssh versus cygwin-x).
I might not understand putty; I suggested cygwin-x because I can run
most Linux programs as windows mixed in with my Windows windows. One
keyboard, one mouse, alt-tab to go between them, and almost no display
bugs!
I considered the approach of running an editor on Windows to edit
files that reside on the Linux server. I went with the “develop on
Windows, deploy on Linux” approach so I could develop on my laptop
from anywhere (even without a network connection) and deploy when I
was ready (and connected to the network). I suppose if you do all
your work when connected to your network then this concern is not
relevant.
I use the same development approach, Windows laptop to Linux server. I
use either Notepad++ or Notepad2 as an editor (still trying to decide
which I like more). Both allow you to save in *nix format.
oh i like this idea – this is along the lines of what i had in mind
originally. i’ll try this first, with some modifications (putty over
ssh versus cygwin-x).
You may want to install xming [1].
Aside with enabling X11-forwarding in your putty-config (and
sshd-config) this give you the ability to start xwindows on linux-side
and have the windows show up on - er - Windows.
I found cygwin-x a rather big package to install if you only need an
X-server.
I’m using SciTe and jEdit - both can be configured to write
unix-line-endings.
I actually develop on windows and then deploy to linux.
I used the ‘e editor’ for windows its like textmate but for windows.
But this comes down to choice.
I then just use all the usual stuff for development.
When deploying thou I fire up vmware (free) and use copy of Ubuntu to
do the actual deployment. I just found easier to use linux distro to
do the deployment instead of cygwin.
This setup works well. I also have my svn on a linux machine and use
svn for windows and it works great.
Line endings. You need to make sure your files all use Unix line
endings. Windows line endings in files (CR LF) cause RoR to wreck.
Also, I recommend that you double-check that you’re following the proper
Ruby style to indent using two spaces instead of tabs. That’s bitten us
before.
Otherwise your scenario is certainly realistic. Around 50% of our
developers work on Windows and release to FreeBSD, Linux, and Solaris
boxes without a hiccup.
it took a bit of work but i set a working samba share on the linux box
and imported a demo project imported into radrails on windows, very
cool.
i tried to setting remote graphical access to the linux box a few
weeks ago and found the project a total disaster. getting samba to
work was bad enough with windows networking, samba configuration, and
putty ssh to contend with. graphical linux – trying to get working
VNC in the stack too – was a disaster. With so many layers to
perfect, i couldn’t get anything to work. (the box is remote.) i
might give xming over putty a swing.
what are the benefits of a GUI for rails development? graphical diff,
merge, etc tools for revision control?
can someone recommend a good lightweight GUI for my purposes here? TIA