Rails Zero

I had a dream last night. It looked something like this:

The Rails Zero Web Development Environment

Why Rails Zero?

No installation No configuration No gem/dependency/firewall/proxy issues No database install/configuration Geographic and platform independent...just needs a browser and an internet connection.

What Rails Zero provides?

.An always available, world accessible Rails development environment for you and your development team. .An ajax-enabled, web 2.0 Rails IDE (written in Ruby on Rails of course!!)   .Code editor includes syntax highlighting, code completion, refactoring, etc/ .Online source code revision control (a la subversion) .full online hosted database schema control (mysql or postgresql) .rails virtual consoles for interactive ruby/rails sessions including debugging and migrations. .Immediate gratification....log in, make a change, see the results in real-time. .full control of your ruby/rails versions, plugins and engines.

thoughts?

Interesting, except I think perhaps without really compelling reasons, most developers won't give up:

1) Textmate, vi, emacs, etc. The power and flexibility of a developer's toolset would have to be surpassed in order to compel people to switch. 2) Performance. Even though it might perform well on the server-side, transmission over an Internet connection will slow it down (especially things like running tests, debugging etc.).

Other than that it sounds pretty cool. I don't think it would be something I would use (I prefer to automate more stuff using scripts and the console like deployment, testing etc...unless you figured out a way to do that), but cool concept nonetheless.

--Jeremy

I think this is a great idea. Done well might bring rails development to a new level (imagine also this thing packaged as instant rails is...)

Luca

I think it would be great for new developers that want to 'try' ruby/rails without a lot of hassle or muss......

So if that was the target maybe some Rails advocacy people could work on such a project....and host it for such a purpose.

Or if it was truly beleived that people could/would develop this way, one of the rails hosting providers would be a good fit to build such a beast.

Just thinking out loud....

Some people should stop dreaming and start working..... :stuck_out_tongue:

Jeff Amiel wrote:

:slight_smile: I'm sure my dreams were influenced by some surfing I did last night....

I saw these for the first time and was inspired

dabbledb (http://dabbledb.com/) Zoho Creator (http://creator.zoho.com) Coghead (http://www.coghead.com/)

This plugin would certainly address the tool-of-choice topics.

http://www.liverail.net/articles/2006/06/25/webdav-ruby-on-rails-plugin J