I remember watching rails screen cast few years ago. It was really magical. Command prompt and text editor. Miracle was happening right in front of my eyes. That screen cast made me wonder about Rails, it made even want to learn Ruby. I guess it had same effect for many other people.
Couple of days ago, I’ve noticed that NetBeans has a ROR plugin. It made perfect sense, but after I used it for a while there was that feeling “hey this is same thing as everything else”. It’s just some smart named functions that I call. It’s exactly same thing as build provider in .NET. This may be obvious to most, but that was exact moment when it all clicked in my head.
I think Rails is really cool. I think Ruby is really cool too. I like the synergy between them. I like the way working in command prompt and text editor without IntelliSense is making you think about what you type, making you think how to name stuff, so it would always make sense. I like the way it’s making you stay close to the metal, and making you stand out from other “drones” 
Question is does it pay off? Are you better of without IntelliSense that is saving you a couple of keyboard clicks, but maybe stealing a lot more from you. Or you don’t have a chance in this fast paced world.
I haven’t made up my mind yet…