Autotest.add_hook :run do |at|
  at.exceptions = /^(?:\.\/)?(?:db|index|doc|log|public|script|tmp|filestore|vendor\/rails)|\.svn|(?:.*_flymake\.rb$)/
end

If it does not work, try running autotest with “-v” option, to see which files have changed on autotest concern, and include the relevant directory on the list above.

Hope this helps you!

Ruby, of course, can do console apps, but it’s not trivial to read user input. And what if you want the user to type a password? You would like, of course, to show them asteriks ‘*’ or nothing at all instead of the plain text being typed.

Well, “highline” gem covers this and much more. What about writing:

ask("Enter your password:  " ) { |q| q.echo = "x" }

And that’s all! That’s quite cool, man. It can even check if the answer matches some regex, or split it by commas, or anything you want
Take a look at it: http://highline.rubyforge.org/

You can use libnotify on Gnome, though. Those little alerts Ubuntu shows you (3 new updates, It’s time to restart your computer, Connected to Wireless Network etc), all uses libnotify. Let’s move on!

1) Install the libnotify-bin package via apt-get

2) Go to a terminal and type, remembering to change ZenTest-3.6.0 to your current version.

sudo gedit /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ZenTest-3.6.0/lib/autotest/gnomenotify.rb

3) Paste the following on the new file



# -*- ruby -*-
# Adapted from PeepCode RSpec screencast no 1,
# who got it from someone else!
# Adapted with tip from http://ph7spot.com/articles/getting_started_with_autotest
# by DitoCujo (http://ditoinfo.wordpress.com)
module Autotest::GnomeNotify
  EXPIRATION_IN_SECONDS = 5
  ERROR_ICON = "gtk-dialog-error"
  SUCCESS_ICON = "gtk-dialog-info"
  def self.notify(title, msg, icon)
    options = "-t #{EXPIRATION_IN_SECONDS * 1000} -i #{icon}"
    system "notify-send #{options} '#{title}' '#{msg}'"
  end
  Autotest.add_hook :ran_command do |at|
    results = [at.results].flatten.join("\n")
    output = results.slice(/(\d+)\s+examples?,\s*(\d+)\s+failures?(,\s*(\d+)\s+not implemented)?/)
    if output
      if $~[2].to_i > 0
        notify "FAIL", "#{output}", ERROR_ICON
      else
        notify "Success!", "#{output}", SUCCESS_ICON
      end
    end
  end
end

4) Now save the file and open your .autotest file (/home/_____/.autotest – Create one if it does not exist) and require the file you just created by placing this line on the top:

require ‘autotest/gnomenotify’

Done! You should now get beautiful notifications on your screen like this one here

 script/plugin install http://ar-code.svn.engineyard.com/plugins/relative_time_helpers/

Then, you can do things like

<%= relative_time(Time.now) %>
# today

<%= relative_time(1.day.ago) %><
# yesterday

<%= relative_time(1.day.from_now) %>
# tomorrow

<%= relative_time_span([Time.now, 5.days.from_now]) %># May 17th - 22nd

This tip was taken from Active Reload Blog!

BTW, I’ll stay with Netbeans Development Edition. Even being unstable (I believe it’s not even Alpha yet) it’s quite usable, and I’m doing most of my work on it. Just missing a few test features. But that should come on the next milestones!

Thanks Sébastien, for the great job!

1) First, include UNIVERSE on your sources.list. It is located on /etc/apt/sources.list. If you are unsure, take a look at this web-site. It may help you out. Remember to sudo, or be root to do everything

2) Then update your package list and upgrade your machine.

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade


3) Install the build-essential package. It has the most-used tools to compile programs from source.

apt-get install build-essential


4) Install ruby and everything it needs.

apt-get install ruby1.8 ruby1.8-dev irb1.8 rdoc1.8 libyaml-ruby libzlib-ruby libopenssl-ruby


5) Create simbolic links for ruby. The installation made before create binaries with unfriendly names (e.g. ruby1.8). So, we create links to be able to use “ruby” and “irb” from the console:

ln -s /usr/bin/ruby1.8 /usr/bin/ruby
ln -s /usr/bin/irb1.8 /usr/bin/irb


6) Download and install RubyGems

cd ~
mkdir ruby_install/ruby_gems
cd ruby_install/ruby_gems
wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/11289/rubygems-0.9.0.tgz
tar xvzf rubygems-0.9.0.tgz
cd rubygems-0.9.0
ruby setup.rb


7) Install Rails with RubyGems

gem install rails --include-dependencies

PS: Sometimes, on machines behind network proxies, the above command will not work. On this case, you can manually install each of Rails components. They can be downloaded from rubyforge.org and must be installed on this order:

• Rake
• ActiveSupport
• ActiveRecord
• ActionPack
• ActionMailer
• ActionWebService
• Rails

8 ) Install RedCloth if you plan on using textilize.

gem install redcloth


9) Now, it’s time to install FastCGI

apt-get install libfcgi libfcgi-dev libfcgi-ruby1.8
gem install fcgi


10) Install MySQL client libraries (if you are using MySQL)

apt-get install libmysqlclient15-dev libmysql-ruby1.8
gem install mysql

PS: When gem install asks you whitch version of mysql to install, just choose the greater version number for your system.

11) Install lighttdp

apt-get install lighttpd


12) Save a backup copy of your /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

13) Use this lighttpd.conf. Remember to change var.railsdir
server.modules = ( “mod_rewrite”, “mod_accesslog”, “mod_fastcgi”, “mod_compress”, “mod_expire” )

server.pid-file = “/var/run/lighttpd.pid”

var.railsdir = “/home/web/test”

server.error-handler-404 = “/dispatch.fcgi”
server.document-root = var.railsdir + “/public/”

server.errorlog = var.railsdir + “/log/lighttpd.error.log”
accesslog.filename = var.railsdir + “/log/lighttpd.access.log”

url.rewrite = ( “^/$” => “index.html”, “^([^.]+)$” => “$1.html” )

compress.filetype = ( “text/plain”, “text/html”, “text/css”, “text/javascript” )
compress.cache-dir = var.railsdir + “/tmp/cache”

expire.url = ( “/favicon.ico” => “access 3 days”,
“/images/” => “access 3 days”,
“/stylesheets/” => “access 3 days”,
“/javascripts/” => “access 3 days” )

# Change *-procs to 2 if you need to use Upload Progress or other tasks that
# *need* to execute a second request while the first is still pending.
fastcgi.server = ( “.fcgi” => ( “localhost” => (
“min-procs” => 4,
“max-procs” => 4,
“socket” => var.railsdir + “/tmp/sockets/fcgi.socket”,
“bin-path” => var.railsdir + “/public/dispatch.fcgi”,
“bin-environment” => ( “RAILS_ENV” => “production” )
) ) )

mimetype.assign = (
“.css” => “text/css”,
“.gif” => “image/gif”,
“.htm” => “text/html”,
“.html” => “text/html”,
“.jpeg” => “image/jpeg”,
“.jpg” => “image/jpeg”,
“.js” => “text/javascript”,
“.png” => “image/png”,
“.swf” => “application/x-shockwave-flash”,
“.txt” => “text/plain”
)

# Making sure file uploads above 64k always work when using IE or Safari
# For more information, see http://trac.lighttpd.net/trac/ticket/360
$HTTP["useragent"] =~ “^(.*MSIE.*)|(.*AppleWebKit.*)$” {
server.max-keep-alive-requests = 0
}

14) Set adequate permissions on your application’s folders:

chmod -R 775 log/
chmod -R 775 public/
chmod -R 775 tmp/


15) You’re done.

There’s a small catch on this stuff: You won’t be able to /etc/init.d/services/lighttpd stop or restart. For some reason, lighttpd loose it’s connection with init.d, and you can only stop it sending TERM signals from the command line:

$ sudo ps -A | grep lighttpd
1234 lighttpd
$ sudo kill -9 1234


Using  server.pid-file = “/var/run/lighttpd.pid” will take care of the job! Config example updated. Thanks, raul.
That’s it. I hope it helped you.
Best