I posted this to comp.lang.ruby and comp.lang.smalltalk, and my blog. I will likely get destroyed, but it will be worth it if at least one nugget of information helps the Ruby IDE makers. ----------------------------------------- Hi all -- I shout my question to the entire Ruby + Smalltalk community: Smalltalk has had amazing IDEs for decades, why not Ruby? Smalltalkers, Ruby needs your help! I'm hoping to start a centralized discussion about this topic, since my searches have only turned up scattered comments. Ruby should have IDE support approaching Smalltalk's based on the following gross generalization: Ruby and Smalltalk are pretty much the same. Yes, I know there are many differences, and not trying to provoke a Ruby vs. Smalltalk cage-match, but based on language features and constructs, they are very similar. What is holding Ruby back? How has Smalltalk overcome the issues? What can Ruby tool builders (such as the RadRails folks and, hopefully, me) learn from the Smalltalk IDE builders? Reasons I've heard for Ruby's lack of tool support include: - Ruby is not a compiled language - Ruby does not execute in a VM or run-time - Ruby is a loosely-typed language and has blocks, etc. - Nobody really cares enough about a Ruby IDE to make one - vi is all you need! Regarding the compiled language and VM arguments: what about Ruby's irb? Regarding loose typing, blocks, etc: Smalltalk has these! I don't pretend to understand all of the issues, but I want to learn. Unless there is something I simply don't "get", it seems that the Ruby community does not care or see the benefit of real tool support, which leads me to believe that (again) the Smalltalk community is not very interested in Ruby. I've only been working with Ruby for 8 months after 7 years of Java, but I almost feel like a Smalltalker by association, having worked with, and for, Old Dudes Who Know Smalltalk (yes, I said it) my entire career. I've stepped back into the stone age regarding IDE support after using VisualAge for Java, Eclipse, and InilliJ IDEA. No refactoring, no fast debugger support, not even code-completion/suggestion. To the current tools, Ruby is text to colorize. Smalltalkers, you've cracked this nut years ago, help us understand how to do it again in Ruby! -- Joe http://www.josephmoore.net/