From: Marnen Laibow-Koser Date: 2010-01-20T05:00:26+09:00 Subject: Re: Newbie needs help getting started Cary Swoveland wrote: > AB & Justin, > > Thank you both for your helpful comments. I'm slowly getting there, but > there have been numerous surprises (one, for example, is that 'x' is not > a character). > > Not having an IDE, I've resorted to inserting umpteen puts "..." in my > code to see what's happening, and to locate the source of Ruby error > messages that do not have a line reference (exceptions, in part, I > think). Am I missing something on debugging technique? Yes! Use the ruby-debug gem. Just put "debugger" in the code where you want a breakpoint. Also remember that test-first development tends to reduce the need for a debugger, though it certainly does not eliminate it. > > I'd really like to use an IDE with a step-through debugger. Can someone > recommend one that runs on Macs? Don't use an IDE. Ruby isn't Java and doesn't need the heavy IDE support. Just use a good editor such as KomodoEdit or TextMate. > > One other question (that I should have asked initially): is this forum > appropriate for posting newbie questions, or would another be more > appropriate? All Rails questions are appropriate here. > > Cary Best, --  Marnen Laibow-Koser http://www.marnen.org marnen@marnen.org -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.