# \[FR-users\] FreeRIDE project - Call for help **URL:** \ **Category:** ruby-talk\ **Created:** [28 February 2005 13:00 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734 "2005-02-28T13:00:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Laurent\_Julliard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@Laurent\_Julliard](https://rubytalk.org/u/Laurent_Julliard)\ **Post date:** [28 February 2005 13:00 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/1 "2005-02-28T13:00:37Z")
All, Since its inception in September 2001, FreeRIDE, the 100% Ruby IDE, has made a lot of progress ([http://freeride.rubyforge.org](http://freeride.rubyforge.org)). The current version has quite a large number features and, above all, the underlying plugin architecture (FreeBASE databus) has proven to be stable and perfectly suited for this type of application. As of today, Curt Hibbs and I are the only active project members with Curt focusing on the delivery of the Windows installer and myself on the software development activities. FreeRIDE has reached a point where it has plenty of nice features that makes it appealing but it also has weaknesses that can be (really) annoying. Most notably we are looking for help in the following areas: - Documentation: FreeRIDE has a user guide but it is quite outdated. I have just started revamping it but I definitely need help in this area. It’s not a big thing as FreeRIDE is quite easy to use. In a second step the user guide needs a better integration in FreeRIDE. This means deciding on a format that is suitable for online publishing and viewing within the FOX framework. - Windows platform: this is where the most urgent need is. I am mostly a Linux developer and although I’m doing some testing on Win XP (through VMware), FreeRIDE is less stable on Windows than on Linux. For instance we need to improve the debugger, the script runner by making a batter use of the Windows Operating system capabilities, removing slowness in some places… Win2K and Win XP are the target platforms. - MacOSX platform: there has been some attempt lately to deliver a FreeRIDE installer for MacOSX but I need an active person in the core team responsible for driving the MacOSX community and organizing the work and/or building the MacOSX installer like Curt does for Windows and I do for Linux. - Testing, testing, testing…: testers are badly needed. By testers I mean people that use FreeRIDE but are also willing to identify the root cause of a bug and fix it. I use FreeRIDE myself for FreeRIDE development but I tend to always do the same operations which is not o good way of testing. If you are interested in helping us then drop me a mail telling me where you want to contribute and subscribe to the FreeRIDE developers mailing list (see [http://rubyforge.org/mail/?group\_id=31](http://rubyforge.org/mail/?group_id=31)). Working on FreeRIDE is a lot of fun and it is extremelly rewarding because as a Ruby developer you’ll be improving a tool that makes Ruby programming even more fun. Thanks for all your help! Laurent Julliard ---
**Author:** ![Ben\_Giddings1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Ben\_Giddings1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Ben_Giddings1)\ **Post date:** [28 February 2005 23:00 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/2 "2005-02-28T23:00:04Z")
Laurent Julliard wrote: > - Testing, testing, testing...: testers are > badly needed. By testers I mean people that use FreeRIDE but are also > willing to identify the root cause of a bug and fix it. I use FreeRIDE > myself for FreeRIDE development but I tend to always do the same > operations which is not o good way of testing. Ok, I use Emacs with ruby-mode. I've looked at FreeRIDE before, but I'm not sure what there is there that would make me want to use it instead of Emacs. You might get more people to help out with testing if you could provide some compelling reasons why they should use FreeRIDE. Even if those features are, as yet, over the horizon. If I knew I could have a Ruby editor with all the keystrokes of Emacs, but customizable in Ruby instead of lisp, I'd jump in a second... but it doesn't look like that's what FreeRIDE is, or what it aims to be. So, what's your sales pitch? 🙂 Ben ---
**Author:** ![Chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Chuck](https://rubytalk.org/u/Chuck)\ **Post date:** [25 June 2005 17:56 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/3 "2005-06-25T17:56:28Z")
I would like to help with FreeRIDE. Probably could help most in Documentation (to start). Will write more about myself when I see this make it to the mailing list... (it's my third try...) "Laurent Julliard" \ wrote in message news:422315F5.1070308@xrce.xerox.com... > **···** > > > All, > > > > Since its inception in September 2001, FreeRIDE, the 100% Ruby IDE, > > has made a lot of progress ([http://freeride.rubyforge.org](http://freeride.rubyforge.org)). The > > current version has quite a large number features and, above all, the > > underlying plugin architecture (FreeBASE databus) has proven to be > > stable and perfectly suited for this type of application. > > > > As of today, Curt Hibbs and I are the only active project members with > > Curt focusing on the delivery of the Windows installer and myself on > > the software development activities. FreeRIDE has reached a point > > where it has plenty of nice features that makes it appealing but it > > also has weaknesses that can be (really) annoying. > > > > Most notably we are looking for help in the following areas: > > > > - Documentation: FreeRIDE has a user guide but it is quite outdated. I > > have just started revamping it but I definitely need help in this > > area. It's not a big thing as FreeRIDE is quite easy to use. In a > > second step the user guide needs a better integration in FreeRIDE. > > This means deciding on a format that is suitable for online publishing > > and viewing within the FOX framework. > > > > - Windows platform: this is where the most urgent need is. I am mostly > > a Linux developer and although I'm doing some testing on Win XP > > (through VMware), FreeRIDE is less stable on > > Windows than on Linux. For instance we need to improve the debugger, > > the script runner by making a batter use of the Windows Operating > > system capabilities, removing slowness in some places... Win2K > > and Win XP are the target platforms. > > > > - MacOSX platform: there has been some attempt lately to deliver a > > FreeRIDE installer for MacOSX but I need an active person in the core > > team responsible for driving the MacOSX community and organizing the > > work and/or building the MacOSX installer like Curt does for Windows > > and I do for Linux. > > > > - Testing, testing, testing...: testers are > > badly needed. By testers I mean people that use FreeRIDE but are also > > willing to identify the root cause of a bug and fix it. I use FreeRIDE > > myself for FreeRIDE development but I tend to always do the same > > operations which is not o good way of testing. > > > > If you are interested in helping us then drop me a mail telling me > > where you want to contribute and subscribe to the FreeRIDE developers > > mailing list (see [http://rubyforge.org/mail/?group\_id=31\](http://rubyforge.org/mail/?group_id=31%5C)). Working on > > FreeRIDE is a lot of fun and it is extremelly rewarding because as a > > Ruby developer you'll be improving a tool that makes Ruby programming > > even more fun. > > > > Thanks for all your help! > > > > Laurent Julliard ---
**Author:** ![HAL\_9000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/90ced4/32.png) [@HAL\_9000](https://rubytalk.org/u/HAL_9000)\ **Post date:** [1 March 2005 00:04 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/4 "2005-03-01T00:04:12Z")
Ben Giddings wrote: > Laurent Julliard wrote: > > > - Testing, testing, testing...: testers are > > badly needed. By testers I mean people that use FreeRIDE but are also > > willing to identify the root cause of a bug and fix it. I use FreeRIDE > > myself for FreeRIDE development but I tend to always do the same > > operations which is not o good way of testing. > > Ok, I use Emacs with ruby-mode. I've looked at FreeRIDE before, but I'm not sure what there is there that would make me want to use it instead of Emacs. > > You might get more people to help out with testing if you could provide some compelling reasons why they should use FreeRIDE. Even if those features are, as yet, over the horizon. If I knew I could have a Ruby editor with all the keystrokes of Emacs, but customizable in Ruby instead of lisp, I'd jump in a second... but it doesn't look like that's what FreeRIDE is, or what it aims to be. > > So, what's your sales pitch? 🙂 Offhand, integrated dubugging. But you probably have something working in emacs as well. Frankly, I'd be interested in an emacs mode even though I don't use emacs. And I have done some work along the lines of programming Scintilla with a nice Ruby API. See my 2003 RubyConf presentation (somewhat out of date wrt refactoring, as we now have rrb, I guess).    [http://hypermetrics.com/rubyhacker/ff/slide01.html](http://hypermetrics.com/rubyhacker/ff/slide01.html) (esp. slides 6 and 8) Hmm, it's way past time to polish that code and release it. I'll add it to my todo list. 😉 Hal ---
**Author:** ![Laurent\_Julliard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@Laurent\_Julliard](https://rubytalk.org/u/Laurent_Julliard)\ **Post date:** [1 March 2005 15:08 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/5 "2005-03-01T15:08:19Z")
Ben Giddings wrote: > Laurent Julliard wrote: > > > - Testing, testing, testing...: testers are > > badly needed. By testers I mean people that use FreeRIDE but are also > > willing to identify the root cause of a bug and fix it. I use FreeRIDE > > myself for FreeRIDE development but I tend to always do the same > > operations which is not o good way of testing. > > Ok, I use Emacs with ruby-mode. I've looked at FreeRIDE before, but I'm not sure what there is there that would make me want to use it instead of Emacs. Integrated debugger and script runner, easy to navigate Class browser... and soon (in 0.9.4) the integrated Ruby documentation which will allow you to get instant help on any class or method definition you are typing in the editor. I am already addicted to it... 🙂 Collaborative programming is also something that we have on our radar but nobody has taken over this task for now. it's a shame because that is really an exciting one that I have not seen in anyother IDE (ruby or not) so far. > You might get more people to help out with testing if you could provide some compelling reasons why they should use FreeRIDE. Even if those features are, as yet, over the horizon. If I knew I could have a Ruby editor with all the keystrokes of Emacs, but customizable in Ruby instead of lisp, I'd jump in a second... but it doesn't look like that's what FreeRIDE is, or what it aims to be. If only I had more contributors to FreeRIDE, customizable key-bindings would have been done long ago. There is however a limitation in the Scintilla editor that command keys can only be one key. Emacs uses a lot of double key commands which Scintilla does not support. Want to join and make a difference ? Laurent ---
**Author:** ![Ben\_Giddings1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Ben\_Giddings1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Ben_Giddings1)\ **Post date:** [1 March 2005 00:39 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/6 "2005-03-01T00:39:40Z")
Hal Fulton wrote: > Offhand, integrated dubugging. But you probably have something working in > emacs as well. No, I just write perfect code. 😉 > Frankly, I'd be interested in an emacs mode even though I don't use emacs. To be clear, you mean a FreeRIDE mode that makes it seem like Emacs? > And I have done some work along the lines of programming Scintilla with a > nice Ruby API. See my 2003 RubyConf presentation (somewhat out of date wrt > refactoring, as we now have rrb, I guess). So that API would allow (easy?) keybindings from FreeRIDE, making Emacs emulation possible? Ben ---
**Author:** ![Laurent\_Julliard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/919ad9/32.png) [@Laurent\_Julliard](https://rubytalk.org/u/Laurent_Julliard)\ **Post date:** [1 March 2005 15:36 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/7 "2005-03-01T15:36:18Z")
Alexander Kellett wrote: > (privmsg as at work) > > > Integrated debugger and script runner, easy to navigate Class browser... and soon (in 0.9.4) the integrated Ruby documentation which will allow you to get instant help on any class or method definition you are typing in the editor. I am already addicted to it... 🙂 > > i'm interested in this. how can i download the version in which this is possible? You can get it from CVS directly. Go to [http://rubyforge.org/scm/?group\_id=31](http://rubyforge.org/scm/?group_id=31) and follwo th instruction > does it have a good cocoa frontend or at least pluggable frontends? i'd be possibly > interested in making a qtruby4 frontend. On MacOSX it runs with the X Window server. It's a native Cocoa interface. > > If only I had more contributors to FreeRIDE, customizable key-bindings would have been done long ago. There is however a limitation in the Scintilla editor that command keys can only be one key. Emacs uses a lot of double key commands which Scintilla does not support. > > can the raw key events be caught and translated instead? > is the editor component pluggable? are the api's in freeride > scintilla specific or could an alternative editor frontend and > main frontend be plugged in? Right now there is no abstraction layer for the editor it's direclty plugged in Scintilla > **···** > > > On Mar 1, 2005, at 4:08 PM, Laurent Julliard wrote: > > > i'd like to make ruvi a component for freeride if possible. > > there's no way that i'll find enough time to work on ruvi seriously > > in the future and there's a lot of work in aeditor and freeride > > and ruvi that i'd really love to reuse to make a kick ass > > vim oriented ide with good documentation / irb integration > > > > > Want to join and make a difference ? > > > > i'd \*really\* like to, tho i'm already very busy with other stuff, thusly please excuse > > me for the questions that i could likely answer for myself given some more time... > > hope you can don't mind 🙂 > > > > Alex > > -- > Laurent JULLIARD > Xerox Global Services > Business Process Services > Manager, Smart Documents Platforms > Tel: +33 (0)4 76 61 50 48 > Fax: +33 (0)4 76 61 51 99 ---
**Author:** ![Gavin\_Kistner2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gavin\_Kistner2](https://rubytalk.org/u/Gavin_Kistner2)\ **Post date:** [2 March 2005 15:23 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/8 "2005-03-02T15:23:50Z")
Might not be called an IDE, but if you haven't already, you should play with SubEthaEdit along with a friend on MacOS. It's really quite amazing, the way it handles the interface for multiple people working on the same document at the same time. > **[SubEthaEdit](http://subethaedit.net/)** > > SubEthaEdit Homepage > **···** > > On Mar 1, 2005, at 8:08 AM, Laurent Julliard wrote: > > > Collaborative programming is also something that we have on our radar but nobody has taken over this task for now. it's a shame because that is really an exciting one that I have not seen in anyother IDE (ruby or not) so far. ---
**Author:** ![HAL\_9000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/90ced4/32.png) [@HAL\_9000](https://rubytalk.org/u/HAL_9000)\ **Post date:** [1 March 2005 05:49 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/9 "2005-03-01T05:49:55Z")
Ben Giddings wrote: > Hal Fulton wrote: > > > Frankly, I'd be interested in an emacs mode even though I don't use emacs. > > To be clear, you mean a FreeRIDE mode that makes it seem like Emacs? Yes, but I'd also favor "hooks" into FR for the emacs gurus who want to control it via emacs. > > And I have done some work along the lines of programming Scintilla with a > > nice Ruby API. See my 2003 RubyConf presentation (somewhat out of date wrt > > refactoring, as we now have rrb, I guess). > > So that API would allow (easy?) keybindings from FreeRIDE, making Emacs emulation possible? In theory, yes. In practice I wasn't thinking of editor emulation, but just the ability to write sophisticated scripts. It's been months since I looked at it, and I can't recall how easy/hard it would be to associate keybindings. Hal ---
**Author:** ![Javier\_Valencia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Javier\_Valencia](https://rubytalk.org/u/Javier_Valencia)\ **Post date:** [2 March 2005 15:32 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/10 "2005-03-02T15:32:20Z")
Gavin Kistner wrote: > **···** > > > On Mar 1, 2005, at 8:08 AM, Laurent Julliard wrote: > > > > > Collaborative programming is also something that we have on our radar but nobody has taken over this task for now. it's a shame because that is really an exciting one that I have not seen in anyother IDE (ruby or not) so far. > > > > Might not be called an IDE, but if you haven't already, you should play with SubEthaEdit along with a friend on MacOS. It's really quite amazing, the way it handles the interface for multiple people working on the same document at the same time. > > > > [SubEthaEdit 5. Code, Write, Edit. Together.](http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/) > > there is also MoonEdit, and other projects in python that offer collaborative edition ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Guindon1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bill\_Guindon1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Bill_Guindon1)\ **Post date:** [2 March 2005 15:39 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/fr-users-freeride-project-call-for-help/16734/11 "2005-03-02T15:39:36Z")
And for x86 machines, there's [http://www.moonedit.com](http://www.moonedit.com) It's quite weak on the "editor" side, but strong on "collaborative". I'm hoping that FreeRIDE is modeled after these, and not the "Pair programming" model of swapping editors. Merging FreeRIDE's editing with SubEthaEdit/MoonEdit collaboration would be a killer app. > **···** > > On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 00:23:50 +0900, Gavin Kistner \ wrote: > > > On Mar 1, 2005, at 8:08 AM, Laurent Julliard wrote: > > \> Collaborative programming is also something that we have on our radar > > \> but nobody has taken over this task for now. it's a shame because that > > \> is really an exciting one that I have not seen in anyother IDE (ruby > > \> or not) so far. > > > > Might not be called an IDE, but if you haven't already, you should play > > with SubEthaEdit along with a friend on MacOS. It's really quite > > amazing, the way it handles the interface for multiple people working > > on the same document at the same time. > > > > [SubEthaEdit 5. Code, Write, Edit. Together.](http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/) > > -- > Bill Guindon (aka aGorilla)