Merb support

[Erno Mononen]

(I'm crossposting to address-removed and address-removed,
please reply to dev@ruby only)

Hi folks,

Matt Aimonetti from the Merb core team expressed interest in helping to
integrate Merb in NetBeans, so hopefully by working together we can
provide support already in the next release. I'm copying here part of
Matt's email about the things that the support should cover:

"Running the specs from within the IDE (the most requested feature atm)
- run the dev application in a bundled state if needed. (ALL required
gems are packaged in a local gems folder and you start merb by using the
binaries in the local bin folder) TM doesn't support that and it's a key
feature.

- browse documentation/code hinting specific to Merb. (we'd have to help
you there)
- access/reproduce some of the thor/rake methods like bundling/generate
resources..

- access to merb console (merb -i)
- support for different app layouts (I don't think NB should overwrite
whatever the user generated like it's the case with a Rails app at the
moment)
- debugger support including from within the spec runner"

Does anyone have any particular things to add to that? I think the
terminal emulator, which we should have in 7.0, already covers at least
the merb console use case (we plan to migrate also the Rails and IRB
consoles to use the terminal emulator when it's ready). Likewise, the
new Rake runner in 6.5 should help in running /debugging specs, though
it could probably use some enhancements to make it even more convenient.

One thing to consider is whether Merb should have its own project type
in the IDE, or whether it should be something that can be added to a
Ruby or RoR project (I hear some people are using Merb in Rails
applications). Ideally I guess having both options would be ideal, so
the question is rather what should come first. Any thoughts on that?

Any feedback is welcomed,

Erno

[Anthony Richardson]

I think it would have to be a separate project type as merb uses it's own generators. I would also like to see Netbeans support merb slices, should be very similar to supporting merb apps.

I think merb support can be done in stages. I'm using netbeans to work on a merb app at the moment, just loading it as a normal ruby app. The current most frustrating thing for me is that I can run the app up in the debugger and it runs fine until it hits a breakpoint and then the app seems to not respond and I have to kill the process.


Part of supporting merb is also supporting DataMapper, although Merb supports using Active Record the default created by the merb application generator uses Data Mapper. However DataMapper is a little buggy and subject to change so that might want to come later.


I would focus on the basic project support (directory structure) and debugging and then worry about the other things. I can do everything I need to do in merb by combining commandline and netbeans except debugging!


Cheers,


Anthony

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 7:08 PM, Erno Mononen <address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email])> wrote:

[Erno Mononen]

Hi Anthony,

Just a quick comment wrt. debugging: how did you start the debugger,
i.e. what was the exact command used? I was recently playing with a
simple Merb app and debugging seemed to work for me, although I did try
only remote debugging (i.e. I ran the app using 'rdebug-ide -p 7000
merb'). If you're using a dev build, can you try whether that would work
for you (if that's not what you've tried already)?

See also http://blogs.sun.com/martink/ for some more info on the new
remote debugging feature.

Oh thanks for the feedback!

Erno


Anthony Richardson wrote:

[phatmann]

(I am replying to address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email]), since I don't see a way to join address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email]))

I have been using Merb with NetBeans for about 2 weeks now, and my experience has been mainly positive. As already mentioned by Erno, the biggest thing I am missing is fully integrated RSpec support, since I really like seeing results in the RSpec Results pane. The good news is that I can right-click on a project and choose the RSpec Test command, and the results show up in the pane, which is great. But I miss being able to run a single spec. And there is no way that I can find to make the RSpec Test command run via a keyboard shortcut.

I like the Logical view for Rails projects, but I do not use it for Merb, since there are some folders it does not pick up on (like parts). It would be great to have this work for Merb.

It would of course be nice to have the integrated generators, etc. but doing this from a terminal window is not so bad. On the other hand, having the Merb console running in the terminal emulator pane would be very convenient.

NetBeans is the best IDE I have ever used, since it has so many little features that make development go faster. I am very happy that it already works with Merb as well as it does, and I am psyched that the NB team is committed to making the Merb experience even better!

..tony..

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 12:38 AM, Erno Mononen <address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email])> wrote:

[phatmann]

One more thing: many Merb users, including myself, will be using Haml because it is part of merb-more and is very cool. There is a Haml plugin for Netbeans already, but it should be improved and added to NetBeans Ruby distribution.

..tony..

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 4:20 AM, Erno Mononen <address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email])> wrote:

[Anthony Richardson]

I'm using haml on this Merb project as well. I have't install the haml plugin for Net BEnas yet though.

-- Anthony

On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 5:36 AM, Tony Mann <address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email])> wrote:

[Anthony Richardson]

Netbeans build #4362
OS: Ubuntu 8.10
ruby-debug (0.10.2)
ruby-debug-base (0.10.2)
ruby-debug-ide (0.4.1)

tried using remote debugging technique:

/merb/slice/project$ rdebug-ide -p 7000 slice

exits back to command line once I try to connect with netbeans (Debug|Attach Debugger)

/merb/app/project$ rdebug-ide -p 7000 merb

exits back to command line once I try to connect with netbeans (Debug|Attach Debugger)

/rails/project$ rdebug-ide -p 7000 script/server

works fine, stops at breakpoints.

If I just run the plain slice and merb commands the apps starts and runs fine.

I would love to get debugging working with merb, I feel like I'm working with my left arm cut off at the moment

The way I was originally running the debugger was to include the gem repository in the project sources list and then select the slice executable as the run command (with the working directory set to the project directory. e.g. "merb-slices-1.0/bin/slice"

Cheers,

Anthony Richardson



On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 10:50 PM, Erno Mononen <address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email])> wrote:

[Anthony Richardson]

Log into netbeans.org and then go to this page http://ruby.netbeans.org/servlets/ProjectMailingListList

On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 4:25 AM, Tony Mann <address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email])> wrote:

[Martin Krauskopf]

Anthony Richardson wrote:

[Erno Mononen]

Anthony Richardson wrote:

[Anthony Richardson]

Hi Erno,

Using the same command line as you the application works, and I can attach with netbeans, but it does not stop at breakpoints.

Cheers,

Anthony Richardson

On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:57 PM, Erno Mononen <address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email])> wrote:

[Anthony Richardson]

Done

http://ruby.netbeans.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=153534

On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:40 PM, Martin Krauskopf <address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email])> wrote:

[Erno Mononen]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for posting your ideas, we appreciate it.

Wrt. the lack of a shortcut for the RSpec Test command, as a workaround
you can also use the Rake runner for running the spec task, i.e.
Alt-Shift-R -- that's what the command does too under the hood (if you
have a task named 'spec' defined, otherwise it runs all spec files in
the project). Yet another workaround is to bind the Test action (for
which you can assign a shortcut, the default being Alt-F6) to the spec
task. You can do this by defining a 'test' task in the project's
Rakefile, e.g.:

desc "run tests'
task :test => :spec

HTH,
Erno


Tony Mann wrote:

[phatmann]

Hi Erno.

Thanks for explaining how the RSpec Test command works. I confirmed that running the 'spec' task from the Rake runner does the same thing, but there is still no easy shortcut for this action. Why not allow a keyboard shortcut to be assigned to the RSpec Test command?

I tried using your Rakefile workaround. Unfortunately, the test results do not show up in the Ruby Test Results pane unless the invoked rake task is named 'spec'. Any solutions for this?

..tony..

On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 2:58 AM, Erno Mononen <address-removed ([email]address-removed[/email])> wrote:

[Erno Mononen]

Tony Mann wrote: