Question

I am basically from the world of C language programming, now delving into the world of scripting languages like Ruby and Python.

I am wondering how to do debugging.
At present the steps I follow is,

• I complete a large script,
• Comment everything but the portion I
  want to check
• Execute the script

Though it works, I am not able to debug like how I would do in, say, a VC++ environment or something like that.

My question is, is there any better way of debugging?

Note: I guess it may be a repeated question, if so, please point me to the answer.

Answer 1

Your sequence seems entirely backwards to me. Here’s how I do it:

1. I write a test for the functionality I want.
2. I start writing the script, executing bits and verifying test results.
3. I review what I’d done to document and publish.

Specifically, I execute before I complete. It’s way too late by then.

There are debuggers, of course, but with good tests and good design, I’ve almost never needed one.