Aptana RadRails 2 is a free, open source and professional integrated development environment (IDE) for Ruby and Ruby on Rails applications.

It includes extensive capabilities to build Ruby and Rails applications in addition to support for HTML, CSS and JavaScript editing.

It comes with many features including support for project navigation, smart code assistance, visual debugging and structure outlining.

It comes as Standalone and Eclipse Plug-in Versions.

DHTMLX Touch is an HTML5-based JavaScript framework for building mobile web applications. It’s not just a set of UI widgets, but a complete framework that allows you to create eye-catching, cross-platform web applications for mobile and touch-screen devices.

The framework is compatible with the major web browsers for mobile platforms. Applications built with DHTMLX Touch will run smoothly on iPad, iPhone, Android-based smartphones, and other popular devices.

Today we bring you, a transcript of our rendezvous with a design mogul from Minneapolis, with a decade’s worth of experience, Ryan Scherf.

Ryan Scherf is a designer, developer, entrepreneur and husband from Minneapolis, MN, USA. He has been a freelance designer for over 10 years under his personal brand: http://ryanscherf.net.

When he is not slaving away at night to his clients, he is pouring his heart and soul into his new health care startup Bloom Health. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, you can also find me on Twitter at: @ryanscherf.

What is your design philosophy?

I try to keep my designs as clean as possible. Whenever I think I have enough white space, I double it, just to make sure there is good separation of elements. Whenever I can, I try to stray away from any of the current trends; you can’t push the envelope by designing the way everyone else is.

Please tell us how you got into web design. What did you study in college and how did you learn to design?

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SMover (Social Media hover, pronounced smother) is a jQuery social media plugin that hides away social media icons and only displays them when the user hovers on a call to action. It’s also really small, just 4kb compressed!

ShortPHP is a small, ultra-light weight and open source PHP web framework. The code is less than 4KB in size and currently is just under 100 lines.

In some ways you could say that it follows the MVC (Model-view-Controller) paradigm, but since it has no database-related code (it is 100% file-based) it’s more of a VC (View-Controller) – It’s up to the developer to use whatever tools he sees fit.

Guides are useful for laying out elements symmetrically, structure a design and improving the overall layout.

foxGuide is a firefox extension that displays horizontal and vertical guides in your firefox browser. Guides will appear as thin lines that float over the webpage. You can move or remove them just the way you do it Photoshop.

A floating navigation menu jQuery plugin that follows the moving cursor, built with the jQuery framework and CSS.

The floating menu is minimal with discreet float animation to avoid obtrusiveness and help usability. The end result features simple markup, two levels navigation and easy styling via CSS.

This floating navigation menu plugin comes with a built-in feature that animates the page to anchor points.

Yummygum has previously shared a set of 60 free PSD vector icons, IconSweets.

IconSweets2 is another collection of 1000+ high quality free PSD vector icons, perfectly suitable for iPhone & iPad apps or for your new web project.

It contains 400+ icons both in 64×64 and 32×32 and 292 icons in 16×16, all created as vector Photoshop shapes. You may use these icons for both commercial and non-commercial projects and customize them any way you like.

Usually, a lot of colors and design elements can make a design jump off the screen but sometimes, good typography and balanced use of space is better than the design which is overloaded with colors, images and too much CSS.

Ginimalistic is a Free Minimal WordPress Theme crafted specially for designers, developers and writers. It comes with a simple and intuitive design with great typography, pattern and spaces.

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Today, we bring you an exclusive interview with David Walsh, where we try to elicit the secret of what makes him stand out in our industry.

David Walsh is author of a web development blog: The David Walsh Blog and founder of the Script and Style. He is a Core Developer of the MooTools JavaScript framework and a Software Engineer for the prestigious JavaScript development shop SitePen. He is a complete JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5 nerd.

What is your web development philosophy?

My philosophy is one of practicality and professionalism. Use the JavaScript, CSS, and server-side frameworks to get the job done. Don’t use unnecessary tools. Don’t use something just because you want to. Do your research up front. If you don’t go the extra mile to learn something, you don’t deserve to become an expert.

What is your current project (that you can tell us about)?

My client work is bound by NDA’s but I do have a few projects in the works. My blog is undergoing an overhaul which will feature a new design, awesome new content, and much more – I’m super excited to debut that. Script & Style will also soon be overhauled and improved. I also have a secret Twitter project in the works, so be on the look out for that!

How much has the development landscape changed since you started your career? What are the biggest improvements and pitfalls to come from these changes?

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