wxRIDE Finally Available

Desktop wxRuby
1

Hello fellow wxRuby users,

Well, after a long period in which I originally announced that I was
creating an IDE, I have finally become satisfied enough to release a SVN
Version of wxRIDE. I started the project out, and in cases where I
couldn’t
launch the application again, I utilized SciTE (Which uses Scintilla,
same
as wxRIDE), outside of that initial part, and subsequent failures to
start,
wxRIDE was created and modified with itself. (Basically, I used wxRIDE
to
write wxRIDE, as I progressed.)

Now, keep in mind, that this version is a very very very very alpha
version
of the editor, so if things blow up, and you loose hours of work, don’t
blame me! Save your files, and save them very very often. Currently,
here’s a list of features that are currently implemented in wxRIDE.

  • Implements AUI demo to build the core interface for wxRIDE.
  • Implements Scintilla through StyledTextCtrl. Further syntax
    highlighting
    needed, as Ruby is the only language currently implemented.
  • Workspace Sidebar, to view files currently not associated to a
    project,
    and those that are associated to a project (Project handling not
    implemented
    yet), as well as a Filesystem Browser to browse files on your computer,
    without having to utilize the Open Dialog, and a non-functional Object
    Space
    to explore what classes and methods are being defined within Ruby source
    code.
  • All basic editing functions, Cut/Copy/Paste/Find/Replace/multi-line
    (de-)indentation, Code Folding, etc, etc
  • Help File Viewer for wxRuby documentation (No documentation yet for
    wxRIDE
    itself, and Help File Viewer subject to changes)
  • Execution of Ruby Scripts, with capturing of output to a nice little
    window within the IDE! Capturing of output of other applications not
    implemented yet.
  • Catching of errors that wxRIDE runs into itself within it’s code.
    Right
    now, wxError.rb creates a dialog to show the user, but sometimes it
    cannot
    execute for some reason (Work needing there), but the error file
    wxRIDE.erris still generated within the wxRIDE Directory, so you can
    review it to see
    what has gone wrong.
  • Saving of Size, position, maximize/minimize state, panels open/closed
    in
    the AUI manager, as well as the default Home Page in the Notebook

What is still needed to be done:

As noted above, capture of output from other non-ruby programs, Project
handling, etc, etc
Replacement Graphics for various icons, and default actions. (Anyone
want
to volunteer?)
Creation of a RAD component to generate complete GUI’s (Also, anyone
want to
help out?)

So far, this has only been tested on Windows, and Linux, as I have no
mac
around here (Hint Hint Sean and Alex), so I need testing on MacOS X, to
see
how well I programmed this to be cross-platform. To check out this new
bleeding edge software, hook up your faviorate SVN checkout tool, and
check
out svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/wxride/trunk or
http://wxride.rubyforge.org/svn/trunk/.

Suggestions, Help, Comments, whatever are much appreciated!

L8ers,

2

Hey all,

Forgot one little side note. MacOS X and Linux users shouldn’t have to
worry about this, but on Windows, I utilize win32/open3 in order to
execute
the process separately, instead of relying on popen to be available
within
Ruby itself. So until I have something setup to detect if win32/open3
to be
installed, you will need to install this extension in order to use. You
can
grab it by bringing up a command prompt, and typing in gem install
win32-open3, or visiting http://rubyforge.org/projects/win32utils

L8ers all,

3

Hello fellow wxRuby users,

Well, after a long period in which I originally announced that I was
creating an IDE, I have finally become satisfied enough to release a
SVN
Version of wxRIDE.

Many thanks.

…

What is still needed to be done:
…
Creation of a RAD component to generate complete GUI’s (Also, anyone
want to help out?)

Can it / will it be able to import and use XRC produced by other tools?

Alec

4

Hi Mario,

2008/3/1, Mario S. [email protected]:

Hello fellow wxRuby users,

Well, after a long period in which I originally announced that I was
creating an IDE, I have finally become satisfied enough to release a SVN
Version of wxRIDE.

That’s great.
Will you provide an archive file for wxRIDE for convenience in the
future ?
Anyway, I will have a look from my Linux box which has svn installed.

  • Implements Scintilla through StyledTextCtrl. Further syntax highlighting
    needed, as Ruby is the only language currently implemented.

Does the syntax highlighting supports Ruby 1.9.0 new syntax ?
{a: “value a”, b: “value b”} as an alternative for {:a => “value a”,
:b => “value b” }

Currently, I think that there is no editor or IDE that supports this new
syntax.
It would be great if wxRIDE was the first IDE supporting this new
syntax.

Cheers.

Chauk-Mean.

5

Hello,

On 3/14/08, Chauk-Mean P [email protected] wrote:

That’s great.
Will you provide an archive file for wxRIDE for convenience in the future
?
Anyway, I will have a look from my Linux box which has svn installed.

I will be providing a package, along with a Setup file, that will
execute,
to ensure that everything that is needed is installed. But that will be
after I get the initial setup done for wxRIDE.

  • Implements Scintilla through StyledTextCtrl. Further syntax
    highlighting

needed, as Ruby is the only language currently implemented.

Does the syntax highlighting supports Ruby 1.9.0 new syntax ?
{a: “value a”, b: “value b”} as an alternative for {:a => “value a”,
:b => “value b” }

I have no syntax validation being completed on it. If your looking for
a:
to be highlighted like :a, then that may be a bit of a problem, cause
that
is done within the Syntax Highlighting engine itself, not by code I
implement into the system. It won’t know the difference between symbols
that start with the colon, being the same as if they end with the colon.
I
will have to look into that.

Currently, I think that there is no editor or IDE that supports this new

I’m hoping to replace FreeRIDE, Arachno Ruby IDE, and Mondrian IDE,
since
all three of these use the Fox Toolkit in their design, and I’ve seen
them
all (Except for Arachno, since that’s programmed in a different
language),
be consistently slow. Plus I’ll be adding more features, then what I’ve
listed so far for wxRIDE. A lot more. The base design is going to be
as a
single Application, not a modular plugin interface. Plugins however
will be
available to enhance the IDE. If you want to keep tabs, or learn more,
feel
free to subscribe to the wxRIDE User’s Mailing List.

L8ers,

6

On 3/1/08, Alec R. [email protected] wrote:

Many thanks.

Your welcome.

Can it / will it be able to import and use XRC produced by other tools?

If you are refering to the RAD Tool, XRC Import will be available. But
I
have yet to start the actual initial design of the RAD Tool for it. My
first goal, is to get Project Handling, Preferences, and Syntax
Highlighting
for other languages in first, as well as proabbly improving the code
base,
getting things straighten around, and concurrent. So bare with me on
that.
I’ve added Sean Lindsay as a developer as well, so he will be helping me
out
with wxRIDE.

I’m hopeful that people will find it interesting, and worthwhile, so
that I
can continue to progress the project further, and out beat other IDE’s
that
are currently out there for Ruby. But I’m always ambitious like that.
LOL
Anyways, More comments, and suggestions always welcome!

L8ers,

7

Hello Again,

On 3/14/08, Chauk-Mean P [email protected] wrote:

Hi again,

That’s sound great.

I just tried wxRIDE and it’s a really nice work.
The file explorer is great.
In fact, wxRIDE is already more useful than SciTE thanks to this file
explorer.

Thanks, I like to make things as easy as possible, yet natural to the
interface of wxRIDE.

I understand that wxRIDE will be a full IDE.

But what do you think about a light version of wxRIDE that would be
just an enhanced SciTE ?

Well, with the design of wxRIDE that I have planned, it will be modular,
where you can have it as light as you want, or as feature rich as you
want
it. Unfortunatly, right now my concentration is on getting things
together
as I want them. Then I will go back through, and re-write it, in a more
modular method, through Plugins, still leaving the Editor as it is, and
expand the rest through Plugins.

Anyway, keep on your good work.

I plan on keeping up the good work, as I’ve had a lot of positive
feedback
from people, which is keeping me encouraged, and I’m liking the final
result
myself.

8

Hi again,

2008/3/14, Mario S. [email protected]:

Will you provide an archive file for wxRIDE for convenience in the future
?
Anyway, I will have a look from my Linux box which has svn installed.

I will be providing a package, along with a Setup file, that will execute,
to ensure that everything that is needed is installed. But that will be
after I get the initial setup done for wxRIDE.

That’s sound great.

I just tried wxRIDE and it’s a really nice work.
The file explorer is great.
In fact, wxRIDE is already more useful than SciTE thanks to this file
explorer.

The base design is going to be as a
single Application, not a modular plugin interface. Plugins however will be
available to enhance the IDE.

I understand that wxRIDE will be a full IDE.
But what do you think about a light version of wxRIDE that would be
just an enhanced SciTE ?

Anyway, keep on your good work.

Cheers.

Chauk-Mean.

9

Hey Stone,

Thanks for the kind interest and support for wxRIDE. wxRIDE now has a
User
and Development list, and I’d prefer to keep chatter about wxRIDE
limited to
it’s own list. Just so you know, you can subcribe to them. As for your
problem, the error is coming from the fact that your Ruby doesn’t set
RUBY_PATCHLEVEL for some reason, when it should be. If you don’t mind
me
asking, what version of Ruby are you running? You can find out by
typing in
ruby --version on a command line, and it’ll tell ya. If you could
though,
please reply to this email on [email protected].

Thanks,

10

Well done on getting this project out. I like ruby (though I’m
new), and I like wxWidgets, so I’m keen on getting this running.

I have ubuntu Linux running. I checked out the code with:
root@opal:/home/rhys/wxride# svn checkout
svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/wxride/trunk

Then I cd into the trunk directory.
Then try to run the program but get this error:

root@opal:/home/stone/wxride# cd trunk/
root@opal:/home/stone/wxride/trunk# ruby wxRIDE.rb
./lib/ui/AboutDialog.rb:13: uninitialized constant
WxRide::AboutDialog::RUBY_PATCHLEVEL (NameError)
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:in
gem_original_require' from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:27:inrequire’
from wxRIDE.rb:94
root@opal:/home/stone/wxride/trunk#

Is any kind and wise soul able to tell me how to resolve this?

Many thanks,
StonePiano