Rails IDEs

I use Ruby-on-Rails to develop my own sites. It also makes up the majority of the projects that I am involved in at work. I will happily sing its praises and there’s no other language I’d prefer to be writing code in at the moment.

Our other Web applications are written in Java, so our IDE of choice is Eclipse. It’s a fantasticly fully featured open source IDE that is also a development platform if you care to use it as such.

Until the end of 2007 we were using and watching the progress of a couple of Ruby and Rails plugins for Eclipse called Ruby Developent Tools and RadRails. These Ruby development some of the same tools that graced the Java developement environment in Eclipse.

Sadly though, another larger Eclipse plugin vendor called Aptana made the developers of each of the existing tools an offer they couldn’t refuse. RadRails and RDT were absorbed into the monolithic Aptana plugin.

Aptana is downloadable as either a standalone application or as an Eclipse plugin. It has various versions that include Jaxer (an AJAX server), tools for developing against the Apple iPhone and Adobe’s AIR platform.

I have nothing against large applications as long as they are well written – although I would state a preference for the small is beautiful philosophy.

Unfortunately, since installation of Aptana, our Eclipse based development machines run like dogs and crash all the time. Evenutally after having to kill the eclipse process time after time, some corruption creeps into one of the plugin files and Eclipse will no longer start up. We then start the process of removing, downloading and reinstalling 79MB of Aptana plugin that can only be installed using the automatic update site.

The ruby/rails plugins are the best that we’ve found, allowing us to visually debug rails applications, run tests and browse our applications intelligently, but at the moment they’re wasting so much of our time that we’re seriously considering going back to a plain text editor.

Marriage Proposal

Here's the video of my proposal to Penny in front of 170 or so people. They'd come to see our production of the Farndale Mikado, which had an unusual ending.

Farndale Mikado

We're into the last handful of rehearsals for our next stage production, which differs somewhat from October's performance of The Gondoliers in that it's a spoof Gilbert & Sullivan operetta. The full title, which takes a little remembering is...

The Farndale Avenue Housing Association Townswomen's Guild Operatic Society's production of The Mikado

The majority of the cast are women, alongside myself playing David the acerbic producer and Bruce Vyner playing the vicar - Reverend Reginald Bishop - who has been roped in to play Pitti-Sing (one of the Three Little Maids)!

Anything and everything goes wrong with the production. From the moment you enter the auditorium, you're part of the action. The script is side splitting when simply read aloud. The show itself should be hilarious - although I would say that as my partner Penny Gerken is directing it.

Come along if you're anywhere near Poole or Bournemouth, it's only six quid and you'll have a riot.

Google Andriod

Wahey! This is the pot of gold at the end of the Google-phone rumour-rainbow. The Open Handset Alliance have released the first API and SDK for the Andriod platform.

Android is an Open Source mobile phone platform based on a Linux kernel and written under an Apache 2.0 licence. The OHA is led by Google and includes members such as HTC, China Mobile and other huge players in the mobile market.

First impressions are good. The SDK includes an emulated handset running the operating system and tools for creating your own Java based applications that take advantage of the proposed hardware.

The emulation looks good, including basic phone software but strangely no messaging support yet (SMS/MMS/e-mail). It does however have a Google Maps application and some developer demos and tools.

Overall the GUI has the simplicity of design that Google tend toward, though not quite so much as Apple does with the iPhone. We must however remember that this is a first developer preview release. It's unusually slick for a version zero Open Source project, but then I'm sure Google has been pumping cash in to get this party started.

Anyway, this could be the next big thing, so I'm off to try creating an application for it...

Gorgeous Day

The weather is stunning. It's November and we've been sitting outside the local pub in tee-shirts, enjoying the autumn colours. There's nothing quite like a nice Friday lunchtime with work colleagues and some good food and drink.

The conversation flitted over T3's DIY efforts (We have many Tims), including a partial loft conversion. Very impressive. We're thinking of converting our loft and it'll cost at least 20 grand. T3 seems to have achieved the same in just over a thousand quid! Food for thought, although we are planning to get a full staircase put in, which will be the majority of the cost.

Other reasons for jollity include the fact that we have achieved our commitment for this iteration and that we included an afternoon of ''Innovation'' for exploring non-purchase-order based ideas. It's all a bit Google and I can only hope that it continues along similar lines in the future.

Gondoliers Finale

It's all over - thank **** for that.

It turned out very nicely for most of the cast. The director did not fare so well. He has spent the last seven weeks converting an enthusiastic and supportive amateur cast to one that wouldn't even clap when he came on stage to take his closing night bow.

This was quite vindicating. Hearing of his tantrum (in front of several cast members who were about to go back on stage) about the orchestra performing a completely traditional act of minor rebellion - adding a cheeky bar of music where it wouldn't hurt anyone - confirmed my gradually evolving opinion of our "professional" director.

I expect this story will run and run. For now I must sleep, as I'm back in real life again and have to work to earn a crust.

Perhaps I'll be summoned to be the next King of Barataria and I won't need to bother any more.

Please note: Opinions expressed in this blog DO NOT represent those of the Operatic Society that put on the show.

Gondoliers

I'm knackered! Tonight (Friday night) is show 5 of 7 in one week. We're past the hump performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta The Gondoliers.

We got a glowing review in the Bournemouth Echo yesterday night. It praised the energy of the performance as well as the interesting set and lighting effects.

Each night there's a small party. You might think this is pushing things a little, but with the adrenalin still flowing it's practically impossible to sleep straight after a show.

Our schedule of entertainment this week is: Monday, Chinese takeaway; Tuesday, Italian restaurant; Wednesday, Wii & Karaoke night; Thursday, Curry at our MD's; Friday, Snacks and drinks; Saturday, End of Show Party at a local (and rather ancient) pub in Poole.

In retrospect I probably should have taken a few days off this week instead of just the matinée performance. Oh well, I'll try and have a bit of a lie in tomorrow before the Saturday matinée.