Ruby NetBeans, Now With Haml and Better Rspec Support 4

Posted by Kurt Schrader Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:14:00 GMT

Ever since I started writing Ruby code I've used Textmate as my editor. Recently, however, I've found myself using Netbeans more and more, to the point where I usually have Netbeans and Textmate open next to one another. Netbeans' refactoring support, ability to jump to method definitions, and ability to autocomplete code is just too good to ignore.

However, a couple of features have kept me from switching to Netbeans full time, namely its lack of Haml support and the fact that it couldn't run a focused Rspec example.

Well lo and behold, I just checked the Netbeans Ruby Recent Changes page and found the following:

  • October 12
    • Lots of bug fixes
    • RSpec module (not part of 6.0 but available in the continuous builds on deadlock)
      • TextMate RSpec snippets
      • "Run Focused Test" action which runs test under the caret. Locate the action in the Keybinding options (see the "Other" category) and bind to something convenient.
      • "Debug Focused Test", which starts the debugger on the test under the caret.
    • Preliminary support for HAML and SASS - see announcement

They solved both of my issues on the same day!

I did have to install the Haml plugin from here, but it looks like I no longer have a compelling reason not to switch to NetBeans fulltime.

And the obligatory screenshot:

Haml in NetBeans

Awesome!

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  1. Avatar
    Dylan Bruzenak about 8 hours later:

    Glad you like it :) It was a lot of fun to develop; Netbeans has some pretty innovative multi-language support.

    Let me or the Ruby Netbeans list know if you have any problems or suggestions. I'm eager to flush out the bugs; I know I can't have hit everything.

  2. Avatar
    burt hood 1 day later:

    i was actually looking for the haml plugin yesterday and somehow missed the link. thanks!

  3. Avatar
    Martin Ceronio 7 days later:

    Finally! Thanks for pointing this out! I was editing the HAML on a trial-error basis in Netbeans, but this is a great advance!

  4. Avatar
    Martin Ceronio 7 days later:

    Hold that thought. I think HAML support needs to mature a bit. You should be able to debug HAML as well as RHTML, and have code completion etc., right?

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