Sapphire In Steel

Ruby In Steel

Steel is a free Ruby language add-in for Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2005. It provides an editing environment for Ruby programs complete with syntax colouring and the ability to run console applications with one keystroke. Over the coming months we shall be adding more features to the Steel IDE to provide an easy, accessible Ruby coding environment for VS2005 users.

The Steel IDE is being developed in association with Bitwise Magazine.

Mission Statement

We aim to produce the best Windows development tool possible for Ruby. We aim to leverage all the features of Visual Studio: code completion, snippets, IntelliSense, etc. However, to achieve this will take time. We do not intend to have a ‘big-bang’ release; instead, we shall produce a series of ‘beta’ versions at intervals of approximately one to two months, implementing further Visual Studio features and fixing reported bugs in the previous versions.

FAQ

What is Ruby?

Ruby is a simple object-oriented programming language, created by Yukihiro Matsumoto. More information HERE.

What is Sapphire?

Sapphire is the name of a programming project currently in development. We shall, at a later date, provide more information on Sapphire In Steel on this site.

What is Steel?

Steel is the name of a free Ruby programming environment for Visual Studio 2005. This is currently in development and versions will be released incrementally on this site.

Does Ruby In Steel compile .NET programs?

No. Currently the Steel IDE supports the standard Ruby interpreter only; it does not compile ‘native .NET’ programs.

Does Steel support other languages in addition to Ruby?

At present, Steel supports the Ruby programming language only.

Will Steel provide support for Linux or OSX?

The Steel IDE will only run on Windows – not OS X or Linux. However, there is nothing preventing you from developing under Windows and running the debugged Ruby scripts under other operating systems.

Will Steel run in Visual Studio Express or Visual Studio 2003?

No. The Steel IDE has been developed exclusively for Visual Studio 2005, standard edition or above.

Will Steel have debugging and IntelliSense for Ruby?

Yes. We shall be providing debugging and IntelliSense (‘code completion’) support in future releases of Steel.

Will Steel provide support for Ruby On Rails?

Absolutely. It is our aim to provide full, integrated support for Rails development.

Will Steel always be free?

There will be two versions of Steel - a standard edition and a professional edition incorporating more advanced features. The standard edition of Ruby In Steel will always be free.