4 ms·

Setting up Emacs as a Ruby development environment on OS X

78 points by iffyuva 13y ago

gnufied 13y ago
It is probably worth mentioning that el-get is another pretty solid alternative of pallet. I have not tried it though, so if anyone has any comparisons between them, I will love to hear.
davexunit 13y ago
Didn't know about enhanced-ruby-mode. I will check it out. Thanks!
duggiefresh 13y ago
I love the status bar theme, it mimics Vim's Powerline plugin. Does anyone what package that is?
- gnufied 13y ago
  The package is from - https://github.com/jonathanchu/emacs-powerline https://github.com/jonathanchu/emacs-powerline but some of my own customizations. (Author of article here!)
  - pachydermic 13y ago
    This is a great article, thanks. I've been itching to completely customize my emacs experience for a while, but have been avoiding it due to the large up front time investment. I think that this will help a lot.
  - lmedinas 13y ago
    Looks great i was not aware of that! Btw... what is that emacs theme ?
    - gnufied 13y ago
      Sorry for not responding earlier it is - https://github.com/mswift42/soft-morning-theme https://github.com/mswift42/soft-morning-theme
    - pachydermic 13y ago
      I'm pretty sure it's buried somewhere in his manifest/cask file. https://gist.github.com/gnufied/7160410 https://gist.github.com/gnufied/7160410 Looks like it says: (depends-on "color-theme-sanityinc-tomorrow") ... (depends-on "noctilux-theme") ... (depends-on "soft-morning-theme") Sorry, I didn't look into those, but saw he didn't respond. Good luck!
apgwoz 13y ago
Rather than do (load "01blah.el") (load "02blah.el") one could use activator--https://github.com/apgwoz/activator-el https://github.com/apgwoz/activator-el which automates that.
- tadfisher 13y ago
  use-package is also an amazing way to clean up your init files. https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package
equalarrow 13y ago
Through the 90's and into the 00's I used emacs for the better part of a decade. But then as java became bigger and I 'had' to use an ide to be productive in it, I switched to Eclipse. Then when Rails came along, I switched to Textmate. Of course, TM 2 was open sourced and then I switched to Sublime Text 2. During all this, every 6-12 mos, I would download a version of emacs, play with it, then go back to work. I know emacs can do everything including make me breakfast, and I think the happiest/productive I've been with a editor was when I could do all my java builds in emacs and run all my tests from a TM 1 window. I know emacs can do the latter - I'm sure someone has written this functionality, probably years ago. One of the things I always missed with the current editors is split panels - I used it all the time with emacs. I never really cared for folder icons or a lot of gui chrome and I prefer never to have to use an ide. Maybe now is the time to check in again. :) *side note: if you are building from brew, be prepared for a big compile. The emacs source is ginormous.
- TylerE 13y ago
  Have you looked at IntelliJ? Their RoR stuff is really really good, and as IDE it's lightyears ahead of Eclipse or Netbeans, or even VS.
- hardwaresofton 13y ago
  Hey if you're really trying to have Emacs work in your dev environment, look into Autocomplete and flymake (though I'm assuming you've heard about them already) and some more of the package repos (marmalade, etc)... They should be able to help replace the features that IDEs offer... I no longer know what to do when I get in an IDE. I have found it so hard to develop on windows that I downloaded emacs to Windows, and now, that's the only way I develop. Though, I have to look at the docs quite often usually have the docs up in one window and emacs in the other. I think that keeps me honest about how much I actually know whatever it is I'm using -- If I'm spending too much time looking up the docs/stack overflow for a particular tool, that is an easy way to gauge how proficient I am.
- alxp 13y ago
  I recently switched from NetBeans to Emacs, and while NetBeans did support split windows, it involved carefully dragging a tab to just the right place in the application, then adjusting, then reaching for the mouse any time you wanted to scroll. With Emacs, it's not just split windows, it's split windows accessible via one key command, and a shortcut key to scroll the _other_ window without switching that really boosts my productivity. The thing I thought I'd miss the most was not being able to use the scroll wheel in the text terminal, but using 'go to next function' and 'go to previous function' key combos, along with making very liberal use of inline search has done a pretty good job replacing how I previously navigated documents. I didn't think that not having to leave the home row keys was such a big deal but now I have to do it so much less often taht I can feel how jarring it is to my rhythm of working.
unhammer 13y ago
Wow, thanks for the tip about web-mode, I did not know about that one. I remember trying "mmm-mode" or something many years ago, and it was just too buggy to work with, but web-mode has worked with everything I've tried so far :-)
michas 13y ago
Emacs and modern - that's a contradiction.

78 points by iffyuva 13y ago

It is probably worth mentioning that el-get is another pretty solid alternative of pallet. I have not tried it though, so if anyone has any comparisons between them, I will love to hear.

davexunit 13y ago

Didn't know about enhanced-ruby-mode. I will check it out. Thanks!

duggiefresh 13y ago

I love the status bar theme, it mimics Vim's Powerline plugin. Does anyone what package that is?

gnufied 13y ago
The package is from - https://github.com/jonathanchu/emacs-powerline https://github.com/jonathanchu/emacs-powerline but some of my own customizations. (Author of article here!)
- pachydermic 13y ago
  This is a great article, thanks. I've been itching to completely customize my emacs experience for a while, but have been avoiding it due to the large up front time investment. I think that this will help a lot.
- lmedinas 13y ago
  Looks great i was not aware of that! Btw... what is that emacs theme ?
  - gnufied 13y ago
    Sorry for not responding earlier it is - https://github.com/mswift42/soft-morning-theme https://github.com/mswift42/soft-morning-theme
  - pachydermic 13y ago
    I'm pretty sure it's buried somewhere in his manifest/cask file. https://gist.github.com/gnufied/7160410 https://gist.github.com/gnufied/7160410 Looks like it says: (depends-on "color-theme-sanityinc-tomorrow") ... (depends-on "noctilux-theme") ... (depends-on "soft-morning-theme") Sorry, I didn't look into those, but saw he didn't respond. Good luck!

apgwoz 13y ago

Rather than do (load "01blah.el") (load "02blah.el") one could use activator--https://github.com/apgwoz/activator-el https://github.com/apgwoz/activator-el which automates that.

tadfisher 13y ago
use-package is also an amazing way to clean up your init files. https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package

equalarrow 13y ago

Through the 90's and into the 00's I used emacs for the better part of a decade. But then as java became bigger and I 'had' to use an ide to be productive in it, I switched to Eclipse. Then when Rails came along, I switched to Textmate. Of course, TM 2 was open sourced and then I switched to Sublime Text 2. During all this, every 6-12 mos, I would download a version of emacs, play with it, then go back to work. I know emacs can do everything including make me breakfast, and I think the happiest/productive I've been with a editor was when I could do all my java builds in emacs and run all my tests from a TM 1 window. I know emacs can do the latter - I'm sure someone has written this functionality, probably years ago. One of the things I always missed with the current editors is split panels - I used it all the time with emacs. I never really cared for folder icons or a lot of gui chrome and I prefer never to have to use an ide. Maybe now is the time to check in again. :) *side note: if you are building from brew, be prepared for a big compile. The emacs source is ginormous.

TylerE 13y ago
Have you looked at IntelliJ? Their RoR stuff is really really good, and as IDE it's lightyears ahead of Eclipse or Netbeans, or even VS.
hardwaresofton 13y ago
Hey if you're really trying to have Emacs work in your dev environment, look into Autocomplete and flymake (though I'm assuming you've heard about them already) and some more of the package repos (marmalade, etc)... They should be able to help replace the features that IDEs offer... I no longer know what to do when I get in an IDE. I have found it so hard to develop on windows that I downloaded emacs to Windows, and now, that's the only way I develop. Though, I have to look at the docs quite often usually have the docs up in one window and emacs in the other. I think that keeps me honest about how much I actually know whatever it is I'm using -- If I'm spending too much time looking up the docs/stack overflow for a particular tool, that is an easy way to gauge how proficient I am.
alxp 13y ago
I recently switched from NetBeans to Emacs, and while NetBeans did support split windows, it involved carefully dragging a tab to just the right place in the application, then adjusting, then reaching for the mouse any time you wanted to scroll. With Emacs, it's not just split windows, it's split windows accessible via one key command, and a shortcut key to scroll the _other_ window without switching that really boosts my productivity. The thing I thought I'd miss the most was not being able to use the scroll wheel in the text terminal, but using 'go to next function' and 'go to previous function' key combos, along with making very liberal use of inline search has done a pretty good job replacing how I previously navigated documents. I didn't think that not having to leave the home row keys was such a big deal but now I have to do it so much less often taht I can feel how jarring it is to my rhythm of working.

unhammer 13y ago

Wow, thanks for the tip about web-mode, I did not know about that one. I remember trying "mmm-mode" or something many years ago, and it was just too buggy to work with, but web-mode has worked with everything I've tried so far :-)

michas 13y ago

Emacs and modern - that's a contradiction.