development speed boosters

You can always use mod_rails in development mode on Apache:

http://www.modrails.com/

<VirtualHost *:80>   ServerName myapp   DocumentRoot /rails/myapp/public   RailsEnv development   <Directory "/rails/myapp/public">     Options FollowSymLinks     AllowOverride None     Order allow,deny     Allow from all   </Directory> </VirtualHost>

Minus the ability to run an inline debugger, it works the same as mongrel or webrick, except multi-threaded and faster.