From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-09-08T11:30:37+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby website code ignores function

On Fri, 8 Sep 2006, Edward wrote:

> When I run the following script as a web page, it ignores the output of
> my function and doesn't print the "test2" as if there is a problem with
> the function. How can I fix this? I pasted the code below.
>
> View Example: http://www.tanguay.info/learnruby/nofunction.rb
>
> Thanks,
>
> Edward Tanguay
> All my projects: http://www.tanguay.info
>
> =====================================
>
> #!/usr/bin/ruby
> print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n"
>
> 3.times { print "Hello World\n" }
> print "test1"
> print sayHello("Jim")
> print "test2"
>
> def sayHello(name)
> 	result = "Hello" + name
> 	return result
> end

as with cgis in any language, always, always, always make sure they can run
from the command line, preferably as the webuser.  doing so in this can shows:

     harp:~ > cat a.rb
     #!/usr/bin/ruby
     print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n"

     3.times { print "Hello World\n" }
     print "test1"
     print sayHello("Jim")
     print "test2"

     def sayHello(name)
             result = "Hello" + name
             return result
     end



     harp:~ > ruby a.rb </dev/null
     Content-type: text/plain

     Hello World
     Hello World
     Hello World
     a.rb:6: undefined method `sayHello' for main:Object (NoMethodError)


in ruby, functions must be defined before they are used.

kind regards.

-a
-- 
what science finds to be nonexistent, we must accept as nonexistent; but what
science merely does not find is a completely different matter... it is quite
clear that there are many, many mysterious things.
- h.h. the 14th dalai lama