Amy Editor provides real-time collaborative Ruby editing (and more)

Amy Editor is an interesting find; it is an advanced online programmer's editor, which apparently has not been touched since April 2008 (current build is 080401, dubbed version 1.0). But it's still online, and it is very, very impressive.

My need was simple: I need to collaborate on a Ruby project with someone in real-time, working on the same file while discussing it on Skype. And I wanted syntax highlighting and some other niceties to make the process easier. I came across several advanced editors, but none of them had Ruby support -- which is interesting, since Ruby (and Ruby on Rails) appears to be all the rage these days.

While very advanced, Amy Editor still feels half-baked in some ways. For example, I could not figure out how to save my file online or how to start a project. The editor does have a notion of "projects", but you can only "open" a project – I really couldn't figure out how to create one, even after reading the online help (which does exist, and is well-written).

Another thing you should know is that it is not fast; I mean, if you're both going to be working on the same exact spot in code (within one function, for example), the lack of speed might get in the way. But if you just want to collaborate on one Ruby file and are willing to put up with its quirks, Amy Editor is the best solution I could find.

Does anybody know of a better one?

Tags: bespin, coding, collaboration, etherpad, javascript, ruby