Ruby on Rails Debug: Windows

As you may have figured out the breakpointer service no longer works in rails Rails as of 1.2.x. However a super alternative appeared "ruby-debug". Maintained by Kent Sibilev, it gives all the features of the previous breakpointer service and then some. So far the best documentation I can find is located here. More or less your entering the text "debugger" in your code as opposed to "breakpoint". A note for windows users is when you do the gem install be sure to pick the win32 version. Say yes to the rest and you're straight.

The documentation above will get you set on using the special features of the debugger, but if you want the simplicity of the old breakpointer service try this:

1. Once the debugger executes type "irb". You'll now be in the same mode that the breakpointer service used.
2. To exit the irb type "exit"
3. To exit the debugger and continue the application type "cont"

This should give you the same experience as the original breakpointer service provided you.
This also works excellent on other platforms.

Cheers

Ruby AND Rails: Give the Community Credit

For those of you who remember the days when finding open source software was like finding a 3/4" needle in a stack of 1" needles then you'll appreciate how far we've come. I remember trying to install KDE, or MPlayer, or any sort of great open source program only to be greated by yee ole cannot install message because the application required xxx.3.2-gcc.2.xxxxx ...blah..blah...blah.

I have to give congrats to the Ruby/Rails community for making it simple to find what users need. If a program says it needs xxx-1.4.x-whatever it's only a google away. Not only is it simple to find, it's that fact that 99%(a close approximation) of all contributors post their packages as gems. "TOO-SHEA"

The open source community has come a long way but still has far to go. Sure Apple is almost perfect with packages that you can actually uninstall(not that it's open source anymore but hell...it's unix), but what for the rest of the open source world, people could learn a lesson from the Ruby/Rails community. PACKAGE=LOVE

Cheers