Ruby runs on Rails with NetBeans
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Build a web application in minutes NetBeans and Ruby, part 2 Having limped along in the wake of Eclipse, Sun Microsystems' NetBeans is getting its second wind. One thing that's helping is a fresh focus on scripting, particularly around Ruby on Rails.â¦
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If you didn't get a change to make it to this year's php/db|works conference, you might want to check out one developer's perspective (Chris Hartjes) - from the preparations up to the days of the conference. Chris was presenting on What Can PHP Learn From Rails?.   You can see his progress (and experiences) in these series of posts:  Run-up To php|works and some AJAX fun Slides For My php|works Presentation "What Can PHP Learn From Ruby On Rails?" Live From php|works (Keynote edition) Live From php|works - Interview with Cal Evans Live From php|works (laying in bed edition) Live From php|works Day 2 (Keynote edition) Live From php|works Day 2 (decompressing edition) Live From php|works Day 2 (sitting in the lobby edition) Live From php|works Day 3 (Almost there edition)    Be sure to check back for more updates as the conference comes to a close.
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From the RefreshinglyBlue blog, there's a new post that makes a comparison between two of the most popular web scripting languages - PHP and Ruby - on a practical, basic level.   There are rather significant syntactical differences between PHP and Ruby. For example PHP requires semicolons at the end of lines and generally requires curly brackets to enclose blocks of code. Ruby, on the other hand, uses newline characters to denote the end of a line of code...   The post goes through other differences like: value return methods, function/method naming, similarities between them, frameworks, namespaces, documentation and hosting options.
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Andrew Johnstone has posted some of his experience he's had developing with one of Zend's latest offerings - Zend Neon. Neon is the Zend project to bring robust PHP development functionality to the community on top of the Eclipse platform.   I've been using Zend Studio for Eclipse (beta) for several weeks in a rewrite of a framework and numerous sites at work and overall I really like the IDE. Its got some great features and being based on the eclipse project makes it really extensible and customizable.   He happy overall with the IDE but has come across some bugs in his time developing in it (nine of them) with issues ranging from the SVN functionality and samba out to small syntax sorts of things (like the auto-formatting).
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SaphireSteel Software, which helps Microsoft Visual Studio users work with the Ruby on Rails Web framework, launched on Monday a version of its Ruby In Steel IDE embedded with Visual Studio 2008 capabilities.Ruby In Steel Text Edition, priced at $49, is hosted in the Visual Studio 2008 Shell, which enables tools to be built based on the Visual Studio IDE. With Text Edition, developers do not need to have their own copy of Visual Studio as they have with the previously released Ruby In Steel Developer Edition, said Huw Collingbourne, SapphireSteel technology director."We put all our support into Visual Studio so the end-user gets a Ruby-flavored edition of Visual Studio," with its attendant capabilities, Collingbourne said.Use of the Visual Studio Shell gives SapphireSteel a chance to compete with Eclipse-based IDEs, such as CodeGear's 3rdRail, which also is billed as a Rails IDE, SapphireSteel said. But 3rdRail costs $399.Text Edition does not support Microsoft languages like C# or C++, but HTML designer and JavaScript support is included. While lacking the high-performance debugger and IntelliSense code completion capabilities of the $199 Ruby In Steel Developer Edition, Text Edition features both RHTML and embedded Ruby in Rails editing."[Developers] have the choice of which templating system they want to develop in," said Collingbourne.Ruby in Steel Text Edition and tools like it received a thumbs-up from Ruby on Rails founder David Heinemeier Hansson in an e-mail on Monday."I have not used it myself, but I'm very happy to see this growth spurt of new tools dedicated to Ruby on Rails crop up," Hansson said. "Ruby In Steel is particularly interesting to developers coming over from the Microsoft world as Visual Studio is a familiar environment to them. That'll likely ease the transition."Other features in Text Edition include code coloring and folding for focusing on specific parts of code, auto-expand snippets plus a snippet editor, bracket and keyword matching, and code formatting tools.Integrated debugging with step into/over/watch variables is featured; developers can see how variables change.Also offered is customization with alternative color schemes, integrated command prompt and docked interactive Ruby and IRB (Interactive Ruby) consoles. Users also get an all-in-one setup program to install Visual Studio, Ruby, Ruby In Steel, and the MySQL database. Comprehensive documentation and help are offered as well.
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On the Phantom Reference blog there's a post that looks at the integration between NetBeans and PHP via a plugin.   Do you know that you can use NetBeans to build web applications using PHP? PHP plug-in is an extension to the NetBeans IDE that enables you to perform web based development on NetBeans. While there are several PHP IDEs available in the market today, NetBeans PHP plug-in offers the same functionalities offered by other IDEs and then much more. Here is a short note to quickly get you started with NetBeans PHP plug-in in Solaris.   The instructions are pretty adaptable for any OS out there, but you will need a build of NetBeans 6.1 as well as an Apache/PHP instance to configure. The setup is complete with screenshots as well as an example of making a script and running it right there in the application (no web server needed).
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Chris Hartjes is taking on what he calls his "next foolish project" - a console for the CakePHP framework.   On the CakePHP mailing list, somebody familiar with Ruby on Rails' console functionality asked "why isn't there one of these in Cake?" [...] So I got to thinking about how to do this. On the surface, it seems the easiest way to do this is to write a PHP script that takes entries on the command line, run the input through an 'eval' statement. Sounds easy enough, and I could write that in a hurry. I think the trickiness comes in figuring out how to hook it into CakePHP so that you can access Models that already exist.   For those attending the Vancouver PHP Conference, attend his talk and you might get  amention of how far he's come with the idea. Otherwise, stay tuned to his blog for updates.
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Zed rails, Bray dizzy The launch of a low-cost Ruby on Rails integrated development environment from SapphireSteel Software based on Microsoft's Visual Studio comes at a turning point for both the Ruby language and its associated Rails framework. But quite what the turning point will be is open to question.â¦
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The PHP Community is buzzing about a new article, posted on the O'Reilly Ruby blog, about how the author (Derek Silvers of cdbaby.com) made the decision that Ruby on Rails just wasn't right for the project he was working on.    Back in January 2005, I announced on the O'Reilly blog that I was going to completely scrap over 100,000 lines of messy PHP code in my existing CD Baby  website, and rewrite the entire thing in Rails, from scratch. [...] The first few months showed good progress, and Jeremy could not have been more amazing, twisting the deep inner guts of Rails to make it do things it was never intended to do.   But at every step, it seemed our needs clashed with Rails' preferences. (Like trying to turn a train into a boat. It's do-able with a lot of glue. But it's damn hard. And certainly makes you ask why you're really doing this.)    Recounting the rest of the story, Derek mentions the turning point ("Is there anything Rails can do that PHP CAN'T do?") and the speed at which they were able to make up for the two years of lost development time. To helps others make a decision for their project, he also includes seven reasons why he made the decision to switch back, including:   Our entire company's stuff was in php: don't underestimate integration Don't want what i donÃ¢ÂÂt need I love SQL Programming languages are like girlfriends: the new one is better because *you* are better   There's also been several bloggers in the PHP community that have responded to the article:   Elizabeth Naramore - "Derek Sivers' Article on RoR vs PHP" Paul Jones - "Is there anything Rails can do that PHP cannot do? *No.*" Terry Chay - "Why PHP triumphs over Ruby" Jeff Moore - "Ruby versus PHP or There and Back Again"
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(InfoWorld) - Over two years in the making, Sun Microsystems is due to release the latest version of its Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) software Monday, placing particular emphasis on the application development platform's support for other scripting languages. Java SE 6 is the first version of the software where developers will be able to mix Java technology with other languages such as PHP, Python, Ruby and JavaScript. "Going multilingual is a big theme of this release," said Mark Reinhold, Sun's chief engineer for Java SE. Sun's approach used to be that Java was the solution for all developers' problems, he said. But it has since become clear to Sun that developers want to use other languages in conjunction with Java to create hybrid applications. Sun has created a collection of scripting engines on its Web site, and Java SE 6 includes a preconfigured version of Mozilla's open-source Rhino JavaScript engine. "Java SE 6 is an extremely significant release for us," said Jean Elliott, Sun's senior director of Java platform product marketing. She drew particular attention to community participation in the platform's development. For the first time, hundreds of non-Sun developers had some input into the Java SE development process, beginning in September 2004 as Sun released Java SE 5. One area where developers influenced the platform was their request that an add-on for Sun's NetBeans Java integrated development environment be included, Reinhold said. So the new platform features a new layout manager component based on NetBeans GUI Builder, formerly known as Matisse. Working more closely with external developers and enabling more than 160 third-party software vendors to test their Java-based applications on pre-release builds of Java SE 6 should result in more rapid adoption of the new software, Elliott said. "We expect the transition from Java SE 5 to 6 be very easy because of the focus we put on compatibility," she said. Michael Cote, a software analyst with RedMonk, thinks it could take developers up to a year or more to adopt Java SE 6. "Some teams will work it into their next release cycle, others will take several cycles to evaluate it, while others will have to wait on their applications server vendors to update to 6," he said via e-mail. Sun's done a lot of work around the Java HotSpot virtual machine and garbage collection to ensure that Java SE provides good "out-of-box performance," Reinhold said. The vendor has also spent time significantly improving tools within Java SE 6 aimed at diagnosing, managing and monitoring application development. Java SE 6 comes with support for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, the business release of which made its debut late last month. Sun had to engage in some "difficult workarounds" with pre-release versions of Vista, but Reinhold said that such issues are no longer a problem when integrating Java SE 6 with the APIs (application programming interfaces) contained in the final, shipping version of the Microsoft OS. Some of the joint engineering work Microsoft and Sun have done as part of interoperability effort Project Tango appears in Java SE 6's support for new Web services APIs such as the Java API for XML Web Services (JAX-WS) 2.0, he added. "There's a very clear message from Sun's customers: 'You need to work with Microsoft,'" Reinhold said. When the full-blown open-source version of Java SE known as OpenJDK Project appears in March next year, it will include all the new functionality of Java SE 6, according to Elliott.
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Migrate and be damned Sun Microsystems is reaching out to scripters and developers on rivals' IDEs with enterprise tools and a migration program for its latest version of NetBeans.â¦
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SableVM is a robust, extremely portable, efficient, and specifications-compliant Java Virtual Machine that aims to be easy to maintain and to extend. It features a state-of-the-art and efficient interpreter engine. Its source code is very accessible and easy to understand. It also has many robustness features that have been the object of careful design.     SableVM is a clean-room implementation of the publicly available specifications.    In this version, we added an experimental generational garbage collector, we imported a new GNU Classpath snapshot, we added handling of Jar/Zip files on boot classpath, we added user-friendly failure messages for bootstrap problems, we added added a profiling switch, we made sablevm-classpath install its files in standard locations, we made jikes and gcc be less verbose by default, and we made several important bugfixes and improvements.  You can download the SableVM from: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=5523&release_id=281502
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(InfoWorld) - Sun Microsystems has been quiet about its JavaFX technology for building graphical applications since introducing it in May, but on Friday the company added a compiler to the platform. Also on tap is an updated plug-in to outfit the open source NetBeans platform for building JavaFX applications. New online demonstrations also are being made available. Based on the Swing GUI toolkit for Java, JavaFX is intended to bolster development of graphical user experiences for systems ranging from desktops to mobile clients and even TVs. "JavaFX makes the power that existed within Swing more accessible to developers so they can create exciting applications," featuring visual interaction, said Jean Elliott, Sun's senior director of Java software product marketing. At the JavaOne conference in May, Sun unveiled two critical components planned for the platform: JavaFX Script, which is a scripting language for content creation, and JavaFX Mobile, which provides a software system for mobile devices. JavaFX technologies are only in a very early stage of development. Applications will run with a Java Virtual Machine. A beta release of JavaFX technology is intended for release at the JavaOne conference next May, but early access code -- described as "sub-alpha" code by Sun -- has been made available. Source code for the OpenJavaFX Compiler is available here. The compiler enables JavaFX Script code to be compiled into Java code. "What you really want to do is compile an entire program, get it all into Java to begin with and it compiles much faster," said Chet Haase, Sun Java chief client architect. The NetBeans plug-in, meanwhile, will provide for developing JavaFX Script programs in the IDE. JavaFX programs can be built easier, Haase said. JavaFX programs will be available as NetBeans projects. The plug-in will work with NetBeans 5.5 and is due to be incorporated this fall into NetBeans 6.0, the upcoming version of the IDE. The NetBeans 6.0 version of the plug-in features a preview of JavaFXPad integration. JavaFXPad is a lightweight tool for building graphical elements using JavaFX Script. The NetBeans 5.5 plug-in can be accessed here, while the NetBeans 6.0 variant is available here. Two demonstrations are available showing an instant messaging client and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) integration. Users must first have the Java development kit installed to view the demonstrations. The demonstrations can be found here.Â  With JavaFX Sun seeks to enable more lightweight, easier development of consumer-oriented applications, Haase said. These could include Web sites with rich animation and user interfaces that are more dynamic than a typical forms-based application, he said. JavaFX joins what is becoming a crowded market for technologies to create graphical interfaces. "The market is only recently crowded," said analyst Joe Niski, of Burton Group. Adobe's Flash and Flex technologies have been around for a while but have not generated a lot of excitement lately, Niski said.Â  But Sun's JavaFX and Microsoft's new Silverlight platform have been added to the mix, he noted. Sun is off to a good start with JavaFX, said Niski. "They have a really compelling story, at least with the platform penetration, because JavaFX will run on any JVM," Niski said. "The one thing that it lacks is good graphical tooling targeting Web designers," he said. "It's good to see Sun putting attention into the user experience," said Niski. JavaFX extends beyond AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). "AJAX makes it easier to build more dynamic Web pages but itâs still about static Web pages," Haase said. "It's not as rich an interface for the user," as JavaFX, he said. JavaFX Script was built with developers of graphical and GUI applications in mind, Elliott said. JavaFX Script code was downloaded 3,000 times from May 13 to June 10. Microsoft is set to soon ship a release candidate for Silverlight. A release candidate is considered a precursor to the general release of the technology.
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Mike Naberezny has posted a few more articles to the "Rails for PHP Developers" website (based on this book) covering some more of the basics.  There's three new tutorials posted:  Ruby Block Scope - the basics of Ruby block scope, a common point of confusion for PHP developers new to Ruby.  Variable Arguments - an article that shows two common API patterns found in Rails, variable arguments and option hashes, and how to implement them both in PHP.  Regular Expressions in Ruby - a useful reference that maps all of the common PHP regular expression functions to the equivalents in Ruby.    Check out the rest of the site for even more great content.
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Two new packs for the open-source NetBeans IDE aim to make it easier to work on applications for the Web and for a range of OSes.
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As both Andrei Zmievski and Clay Loveless mention in new blog posts from each, things in the PHP framework scene are getting a bit out of hand.   Andrei's comments:   I know you might be lusting after Rails for some reason and want to have the fame, the glory, and the dancing girls of DHH, but are we not going to be satisifed until Sourceforge is filled with the object-oriented diarrheal remains of our overblown egos and delusions of grandeur?   And Clay's thoughts:   Build a cool app. Forget about your own personal stamp on the framework world; you missed the boat on that one. But, if you want to make a mark, the world is wide open for new and cool applications. Pick an existing framework, start building your app, and contribute fixes back to that framework's community as you find shortcomings in your needs for your app.   They're both in agreement, and on more that one point. They recommend the best course of action for anyone out there with "the itch" to really work with a framework - fine one of the already established ones and dive right in. It might not be your own code, but you can contribute your own functionality and thoughts into the project and establish your own little niche.
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Refreshing its development tools arsenal, Sun Microsystems on Tuesday revealed plans for upcoming versions of Java Studio Creator and is unleashing upgrades to the NetBeans open source platform and Java Studio Enterprise.