TOTD #7: Switch between JRuby and CRuby interpreter in NetBeans 6

The NetBeans 6 IDE comes pre-configured with JRuby interpreter. This TOTD explains how the JRuby interpreter can be swapped with a C-based Ruby interpreter and vice versa.

1. Verify the JRuby interpreter
   1. Create a Rails Hello World using NetBeans 6 IDE.
   2. Expand "Views", "say", and open "hello.rhtml".
   3. Right-click in the "hello.rhtml" window and select "Run File" (Shift+F6 is the default shortcut). This starts the WEBrick container and displays "http://localhost:3000/say/hello". It shows the following in the output window:
      
      => Booting WEBrick...
=> Rails application started on http://0.0.0.0:3000
=> Ctrl-C to shutdown server; call with --help for options
[2007-09-07 13:40:29] INFO WEBrick 1.3.1
[2007-09-07 13:40:29] INFO ruby 1.8.5 (2007-09-06) [java]
[2007-09-07 13:40:29] INFO WEBrick::HTTPServer#start: pid=6336176 port=3000
127.0.0.1 - - [07/Sep/2007:13:40:33 PDT]  "GET /say/hello HTTP/1.1" 200 83
- -> /say/hello
2. Switch to C-based Ruby interpreter
   1. Download and install C-based Ruby interpreter (say RUBY_HOME).
   2. Install Rails gem by giving the following command in RUBY_HOME\bin directory:
      
      ruby -S gem install rails -y --no-rdoc
   3. In the NetBeans IDE "Tools" menu, select "Options", "Ruby", and change the value of "Ruby Interpreter" from
      
      
      
      to
      
      
   4. Stop the already running WEBrick server by clicking on the "x" in the bottom right corner of the IDE.
      
      
   5. Right-click in the "hello.rhtml" window and select "Run File" (Shift+F6 is the default shortcut). This starts the WEBrick container using the C-based Ruby interpreter and displays "http://localhost:3000/say/hello". It shows the following in the output window:
      
      => Booting WEBrick...
[2007-09-07 14:13:54] INFO WEBrick 1.3.1
=> Rails application started on http://0.0.0.0:3000
=> Ctrl-C to shutdown server; call with --help for options
[2007-09-07 14:13:54] INFO ruby 1.8.6 (2007-03-13) [i386-mswin32]
[2007-09-07 14:13:54] INFO WEBrick::HTTPServer#start: pid=3900 port=3000
127.0.0.1 - - [07/Sep/2007:14:13:56 Pacific Daylight Time] "GET /say/hello HTTP/1.1" 200 83
- -> /say/hello
127.0.0.1 - - [07/Sep/2007:14:14:20 Pacific Daylight Time] "GET /say/hello HTTP/1.1" 200 83
- -> /say/hello

Of course, you can switch back to the JRuby interpreter using the same mechanism.

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Technorati: totd rubyonrails jruby cruby netbeans