Mac OS X

If you’re using OS X, you’re in luck! You can use the best (in my opinion) text editor, Ruby is already installed for you in OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) and up, and you get to use a real command line (not that silly wanna-be command line we have to use on Windows)!

My absolute favorite editor is TextMate (http://macromates.com/). It’s cute, it’s sweet, and it has great Ruby support. The only drawback is that it’s not free. But if you code as much as I do, it’s worth the (fairly cheap) price. And if you’re using a Mac, then I assume you are accustomed to getting the best…and paying for it! In any case, it has a fully functional free trial, so you can give it a try if you want. If you really need a free text editor, though, try TextWrangler ...

Get Learn to Program, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.