[MacRuby-devel] Setting Breakpoints/Debugger

[Eloy Duran]

Hi Pual,

I sometimes use GDB when I need to debug RubyCocoa/MacRuby  
_themselves_, as they're written in C. For Ruby code, however,  I  
almost never need a debugger.
Maybe it's because I write most code test driven so I know that the  
code is probably ok when I actually use it. In the cases where it  
didn't pan out as expected, I use print style debugging or ruby-debug  
(RubyCocoa). For a more elaborate explanation, please see the testing  
video of Manfred explaining about it at the Ruby on OS X conference: http://www.fngtps.com/2009/06/ruby-on-os-x-conference-videos

We have a fairly big RubyCocoa app and some of our Rails apps are  
really big.

It's unfortunate that ruby-debug doesn't work on MacRuby, but Laurent  
has already announced that at some point in the future work will be  
done in this area. But at this moment, MacRuby itself still needs lots  
of work. So we'll need to have a bit more patience for a real debugger.

HTH,
Eloy

On Jun 18, 2009, at 4:42 AM, Paul Howson wrote:

> On 04/06/2009, at 6:57 AM, Laurent Sansonetti wrote:
>
>> I have an idea about adding facilities inside the new VM in order  
>> to attach a debugger to it (and we could even patch gdb to add Ruby  
>> support!) but I won't be able to start this any time soon, because  
>> there are too many higher priority things to implement first. But  
>> if one wants to help... patches are always welcome.
>>
>> Laurent
>
> Hmmm. Lack of debugger support is surely a serious limitation. A  
> deal-stopper for any complex real-world app I would have thought.
>
> I guess you're aware that this will eventually be needed.
>
> Is anyone using MacRuby for a large project? How are they coping  
> without a debugger? (I'd like to know since I'm planning to convert  
> an old non-Objective-C app to MacRuby).
>
> Paul Howson
> Queensland Australia
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