I was just reading up some more about Rake when I realized how many awesome tools there are to write Ruby software with. I decided I should make a list of my favorite tools these days just in case someone else hasn't happened to have tried one - it could make their day!
- Rake - an awesome, awesome make tool, heroic defender of system administrators' time and energy, helpful with testing and synthetic automation - in other words, its a good dog.
- Gems - yes, this is a tool! And it comes with a bike shop, too. I use gems for conveniently organizing and distributing my common Ruby libraries. Since I predominantly write open source software, other people can use them too. More specifically, I use gemcutter and jeweler to package and distribute my gems.
- Vlad - this is a simple "continuous integration" tool, and I like that it is simple and focused, leaving what's already been built to those existing libraries, like Rake
I'll share more of my favorite tool choices as they come to mind.