From: Timothy Hunter <TimHunter@...>
Date: 2006-12-27T22:44:37+09:00
Subject: Re: newbie with a weird technical problem (@ least I think it's weird)

will wrote:
> Yep, as the post title implies, I'm a newbie.  Being a pragmatic newbie
> I'd rather be learning to program, than searching for answers to
> non-language acquisition questions/problems.  I'm pretty sure the
> following falls in that latter group, so if it's in a manual somewhere
> please tell me so _politely_ and point me to _the_ manual. :-)
>
> I'm starting to go through Dave Thomas' Programming Ruby/Picaxe (I'm on
> pgs 25-26 2nd edition if you care) and I'm using TextMate/Terminal to
> code and run modified versions of the book's examples.  So I ran a
> version of the following with a typographical error, which was apparent
> with the Terminal feedback.  So far, so good.  I fixed the error and
> tried to run it again.  The problem is that now when I run it, all I
> get in response is a new blank prompt.  I've tried renaming the file,
> the class, giving it a completely new set of variables in the array and
> quiting/restarting the Terminal.  If I type the _exact_ same thing into
> irb I'm able to create a book and book2 instance and .inspect each of
> them.  But with the TextMate/Terminal combo = Nothing, nadda, zip!
> HELP, PLEASE!
>
>
> #filename bib.rb
>
> class Book
>   def initialize(title, author, pages)
>     @title   = title
>     @author  = author
>     @pages   = pages
>   end
> end
>
> book = Book.new("Ruby Tutorial", "Dave", 831)
> book.inspect
>
>
> #terminal results
> computer: me$ ruby bib.rb
> computer: me$
>
>
>   

It's a language question. The inspect method returns a string. That 
string is not automatically displayed on the terminal. You have to print 
the string if you want to see it. Use "puts book.inspect" for example.

The reason you see the result in irb is that irb prints it for you.