I have to say I’m impressed unimpressed with this new eclipse-based IDE, 3rdRail, from CodeGear.

Update: As I’ve actually started to use the editor I’ve encountered several exceptions that seem to be related to the code completion feature. The exceptions (followed by a nagging popup window) are so frequent that I’ve gone back to using Netbeans for my Ruby editing.

Update: (see comments below for a workaround to the exception I refer to above.

I’ve just finished watching the “Tour of the 3rdRail IDE” video and I invite you to do the same. Below I outline some of the features available but I was surprised to see one specific feature missing, a debugger? In fact 3rdRail joins the majority of Ruby editors that don’t sport a debugger. The only exception I’ve seen is the Netbeans Ruby editor. Anyway, you can check it out yourself by downloading a 30 day free trial from the CodeGear.com website.

Here are the features:

• Available on Macintosh, Red Hat Linux, Windows XP and Windows Vista
• Support for latest Ruby (1.8.5), Rails (1.2.3) and all databases
• Project Commander, a powerful in-IDE command shell (you have the choice of using this command shell or using several wizards that are also available
• Ruby and Ruby on Rails Code Completion
• Key Refactorings for rename Controller, Action and View
• Live Dependencies View for Ruby and Ruby on Rails projects with file linking and project navigation features
• Embedded Ruby console (IRB) with Code Completion
• Rails Project and File Creation Wizards
• DOM Inspector
• Regular Expression Builder
• Subversion integration
• XML HTTP Request Monitor

Here are some visual snapshots of some of the features:

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There seems to be a new push in the build server space to move to a distributed model. Here’s a quick run down of some server choices and why they should be a welcomed change to your development environment.

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