Merb Support (Deux)

[wycats]

You said:

(I'm crossposting to users@... and dev@..., 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.

Basically general support for bundled merb apps (which run entirely encapsulated without any use of system gems) would be a big win. Like I said, Textmate's rspec support hardcodes in use of the system, which makes it not work well (at all?) with Merb.

 

- browse documentation/code hinting specific to Merb. (we'd have to help you there)

See my previous post.

 

- access/reproduce some of the thor/rake methods like bundling/generate resources..

Yeah this would be fantastic. Because thor is just a class, regular class introspection could help here, or we could write some better introspection capabilities into thor so you wouldn't have to grab the information out of thor -T.

 

- access to merb console (merb -i)

Absolutely. Again, keep in mind that this needs to work bundled (bin/merb -i) and ideally would support different modes (development, etc.). Additionally, the main merb server supports a mode where sending an INT (C-c) to the server drops into console mode. It would be cool to be able to support that.

 

- 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)

Yeah. An important thing about Merb is support for just about any app layout. It's possible to ask Merb for details via Merb.dir_for(...). For instance, Merb.dir_for(:model) will tell you where to expect Merb models.

 

- debugger support including from within the spec runner"

Abso-fraggin-lutely. This would be a killer feature that could potentially get me to use NB.

 

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.

Not sure if you already have this, but Haml and Sass support would be great.

 

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?

It makes more sense for Merb to have its own project type, especially in light of different directory structures, but also because Merb has been conceptually diverging from Rails and will probably continue to do so over time. For instance, it would be nice (in the future) to have a mode that makes it easy to develop a merb slice.

 

Any feedback is welcomed,

Erno

--
Yehuda Katz
Developer | Engine Yard
(ph) 718.877.1325

[Erno Mononen]

Yehuda Katz wrote:

> You said:
>
>     (I'm crossposting to users@...
>     <mailto:users@...> and dev@...
>     <mailto:dev@...>, 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.
>
>
> Basically general support for bundled merb apps (which run entirely
> encapsulated without any use of system gems) would be a big win. Like
> I said, Textmate's rspec support hardcodes in use of the system, which
> makes it not work well (at all?) with Merb.

How exactly do you run a bundled Merb app, i.e. what are the steps that
the IDE should do? (Excuse me for my ignorance, I'm pretty new to the
Merb world)

>  
>
>     - browse documentation/code hinting specific to Merb. (we'd have
>     to help you there)
>
>
> See my previous post.
>  
>
>     - access/reproduce some of the thor/rake methods like
>     bundling/generate resources..
>
>
> Yeah this would be fantastic. Because thor is just a class, regular
> class introspection could help here, or we could write some better
> introspection capabilities into thor so you wouldn't have to grab the
> information out of thor -T.

Would something like the current Rake runner
(http://wiki.netbeans.org/RubyRake) do, or did you have something else
in your mind?

>  
>
>     - access to merb console (merb -i)
>
>
> Absolutely. Again, keep in mind that this needs to work bundled
> (bin/merb -i) and ideally would support different modes (development,
> etc.). Additionally, the main merb server supports a mode where
> sending an INT (C-c) to the server drops into console mode. It would
> be cool to be able to support that.

This might work already with the upcoming terminal emulator, but will
need to double-check that.

>  
>
>     - 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)
>
>
> Yeah. An important thing about Merb is support for just about any app
> layout. It's possible to ask Merb for details via Merb.dir_for(...).
> For instance, Merb.dir_for(:model) will tell you where to expect Merb
> models.
>
>     - debugger support including from within the spec runner"
>
>
> Abso-fraggin-lutely. This would be a killer feature that could
> potentially get me to use NB.

Martin said he'll look into this. In the dev builds of the IDE debugging
a Merb app already works to some extent using remote debugging (I say to
some extent because it doesn't seem to work for everyone / every Merb
project).

>  
>
>     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.
>
>
> Not sure if you already have this, but Haml and Sass support would be
> great.

We have a plugin for Haml
(http://mediacast.sun.com/users/~tor/media/org-netbeans-modules-haml.nbm/details),
contributed by Dylan Bruzenak, but I'm not sure whether it is being
actively developed now. Does anyone here know whether the sources for it
are hosted on a public site somewhere?

>  
>
>     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?
>
>
> It makes more sense for Merb to have its own project type, especially
> in light of different directory structures, but also because Merb has
> been conceptually diverging from Rails and will probably continue to
> do so over time. For instance, it would be nice (in the future) to
> have a mode that makes it easy to develop a merb slice.

The slice concept seems interesting, definitely something to keep in
mind when implementing the project type for Merb. I think the IDE
doesn't deal too well with a project that uses slices currently (for
example multiple rakefiles is a bit of problem).

Thanks,
Erno

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