Crafting iOS Dev Tools in Redcar, the Ruby Editor

Redcar is a really fun text editor, written in Ruby and fully customizable. Let's see how we can make iOS development better by building better tools in an expressive language. We don't have to do things all the same way. :-)

1. @kattrali Crafting iOS Dev Tools in Redcar, the Ruby Editor Delisa Mason
2. @kattrali
3. (Obligatory Adorable Animal)
4. A journey to find better editors for Ruby
5. @kattrali Why I like Redcar • It is written in Ruby • It is an editor for Ruby • Open source • Easily extensible • Lightweight • It was open source TextMate before TextMate was open source
6. @kattrali Features • Source control integration • Support for TextMate bundles • Fast project navigation between files and methods • Ability to run shell commands and process the output • Syntax checking
7. @kattrali So many features! • Two-way communication between javascript and ruby in embedded web views • Evaluates Ruby code in a REPL and change the editor itself in real time • Easy to test new feature ideas • Excellent RubyMotion support! ΁(◕. ◕ ΁ʣ
8. @kattrali Under the Hood • Runs on JRuby • Uses Standard Widget Toolkit for GUI bindings • Adds functionality by composition • Everything is a plugin
10. @kattrali Plugin Format
11. @kattrali Plugin Specification # plugin.rb Plugin.define do name "HTML View" version "0.3.2" object "Redcar::HtmlView" file "lib", "html_view" dependencies "core", ">0", "application", ">0", "application_swt", ">0", "edit_view", ">0" end
12. @kattrali Event Hooks self.menus # Define Menu and Submenu Items self.keymaps # Define Keyboard Shortcuts for Menu Items self.toolbars # Define Toolbar Items and Icons self.storage # Define Settings and Defaults self.before_save # Perform an action before saving a tab self.after_save # Perform an action after saving a tab self.templates # Define File Templates under File > New...
13. @kattrali Composing a Plugin module Redcar class TaskManager # ... class Controller include HtmlController # mix in core models to add functionality def title # override default method implementations "Tasks" end def index render :index end end end end
14. @kattrali My Redcar plugins • help • web_bookmarks • tab_pane • line_tools • miniview • templates • groovy support • code-package-view • runnable • terminal • vimly • hotswap • inline documentation • storytracker • clipboard viewer • web bookmarks • grails integration • highlight-line • rubymotion
15. iOS Development
16. Xcode
17. Xcode
18. @kattrali Redcar and RubyMotion together at last
19. Develop Ruby Apps in a Ruby editor written in Ruby
21. @kattrali Developing RubyMotion features for Redcar • Only 1,000 lines of code • Makes use of AppleScript for iOS Simulator manipulation • Uses SWT bindings for autocompletion http://cloc.sourceforge.net v 1.56 T=0.5 s (32.0 files/s, 2640.0 lines/s) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Language files blank comment code ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruby 16 151 76 1093 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUM: 16 151 76 1093 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23. @kattrali Redcar RubyMotion Features • Build, Run and Test Projects • Inline syntax checking for MacRuby • Inline documentation lookup • View RubyMotion and iOS reference centers • Send support tickets • Save and install custom templates • View documentation for focused or selected text • Resource Manager pane for adding, removing and viewing project resources • Autocompletion of classes, method names, disturbingly long constants • Deploy and manage beta builds with TestFlight
25. Resource Management
26. Autocompletion
27. Documentation Reference (with ClamShell)
29. @kattrali Installation and upgrade • Download and drop into ~/.redcar/plugins • git checkout alternate branches for experimental features • Restart Redcar
30. Future Plans for Redcar+RubyMotion 1.0+ • Stable integrated debugger • Commands for attaching profiling tools to a running application (e.g. Instruments) • Smarter autocompletion • Static analysis for Ruby • Better snippets and templates • More testing support
31. Real World Applications?
32. KanaGo, now in the App Store
33. KanjiGo, also in the App Store
34. @kattrali Questions?