Is there any reason to use RubyMine instead of Idea?
RubyMine and Ruby plugin are made from the same codebase, but Ruby plugin for IntelliJ IDEA has extra JRuby support for interoperability with JRuby and Java code. Thus if you are going to develop your projects in pure Ruby you can use RubyMine, otherwise you`ll need IntelliJ IDEA with Ruby plugin.
Is there any reason to use RubyMine instead of Idea?
In general there is no sense in it. But RubyMine requires fewer system resources and has better start up time than whole IDEA with Ruby plugin and all other IDEA plugins. So if you don't use JRuby in your projects you can try RubyMine.
OK - but does RubyMine include more/better features than the plugin in IntelliJ?
The plugin and RubyMine have the same features except JRuby support (Oleg mentioned above that RubyMine and plugin are build from the same source code).
Probably RubyMine's usability is a bit better because we are simplifying IDEA UI, settings, dialogs, show only Ruby related features. Also from time to time new features for Ruby support requires internal changes in IDEA thus we can update plugin only after publishing new IDEA EAP and such features will no be available for user with previous IDEA versions.
Should I run both?
In most cases reasonable to use only one - plugin or IDE.
Jim, I recommend you to try RubyMine for several weeks and than decide what approach better suites you.
Hello Travis
RubyMine and Ruby plugin are made from the same codebase, but Ruby plugin for IntelliJ IDEA has extra JRuby support for interoperability with JRuby and Java code.
Thus if you are going to develop your projects in pure Ruby you can use RubyMine, otherwise you`ll need IntelliJ IDEA with Ruby plugin.
Thanks,
Oleg
In general there is no sense in it. But RubyMine requires fewer system resources and has better start up time than whole IDEA with Ruby plugin and all other IDEA plugins. So if you don't use JRuby in your projects you can try RubyMine.
OK - but does RubyMine include more/better features than the plugin in IntelliJ? Should I run both?
The plugin and RubyMine have the same features except JRuby support (Oleg mentioned above that RubyMine and plugin are build from the same source code).
Probably RubyMine's usability is a bit better because we are simplifying IDEA UI, settings, dialogs, show only Ruby related features. Also from time to time new features for Ruby support requires internal changes in IDEA thus we can update plugin only after publishing new IDEA EAP and such features will no be available for user with previous IDEA versions.
In most cases reasonable to use only one - plugin or IDE.
Jim, I recommend you to try RubyMine for several weeks and than decide what approach better suites you.
Will do - Thanks Roman.
Thanks for the great responses, guess I'm sticking with Idea.
(On another note, why do these new forums require so much width?! Must be like 1200 pixels minimum).
Travis
The choice is easy for us Mac users.
Never mind--I had no idea Idea was available for Mac!
Message was edited by: Rhywun