# Debug tool?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debug-tool/65093>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 16, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debug-tool/65093 "2006-08-16T02:52:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![krf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/e495f1/32.png) [@krf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/krf)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debug-tool/65093/1 "2006-08-16T02:52:11Z")

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I just started Ruby so I am not going to ask any dumb howto questions  
(yet) but am looking for some information that googling is not getting  
(and a 24k dialup line isn’t helping much, either)

With Perl I use the wonderful graphical debugger ptkdb even though most  
of  
my Perl coding is not graphical. But I wouldn’t consider programming in  
perl on any system that doesn’t have it - whether or not I am using TK.

My first test was to see if it worked with Ruby. I had some very small  
hopes when I saw the statement that Ruby can use TK. But alas no, ptkdb  
doesn’t.

So, anybody know of a graphical debugger for (Linux) Ruby yet? I know  
it  
comes with a built in tool just like Perl, but I don’t like it any  
better  
than I like the native Perl job.

Thanks  
krf

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![krf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/e495f1/32.png) [@krf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/krf)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debug-tool/65093/2 "2006-08-16T03:13:13Z")

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You can use RDT for eclipse, which has a decent graphical debugger for  
plain Ruby. Does not work for debugging Rails applications yet.

There is also the ruby-debug gem (gem install ruby-debug), which  
provides a very fast - currently only text-based - debugger.

Max

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**Author:** ![krf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/e495f1/32.png) [@krf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/krf)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 4:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debug-tool/65093/3 "2006-08-16T04:28:18Z")

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On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 10:12:01 +0900, Max M. wrote:

> You can use RDT for eclipse, which has a decent graphical debugger for  
> plain Ruby. Does not work for debugging Rails applications yet.
> 
> There is also the ruby-debug gem (gem install ruby-debug), which  
> provides a very fast - currently only text-based - debugger.
> 
> Max

Thanks. I am still looking. I got spoiled by Perl which is native to  
Linux and doesn’t require installing, and TK, which I had to have a  
broadband friend download, but is now safely on a CD and runs on ANY  
fairly current Linux without demanding that I download the library of  
the  
month.

I found RDT but it is out of the question for a while. RDT requires  
EclipseSDK which requires JavaSDK which requires (for a dialup user)  
somewhere around 14 months of download time.

And mr\_guid which is very small but requires gtk2 and libeglade2. I  
have long since learned to hate gtk since they seem to change libraries  
at  
every change of the moon, and those changes require new sub libs which  
require new sub/sub libs and - well, back in my RedHat days it was  
properly known as dependency hell. Again, no way for a dialup user.

Anachrid looks promising so I think I will have the friend get it for me  
to try. Hopefully tomorrow.

Ah! To live in a area closer than a thousand miles to a broadband  
hookup.  
Must be wonderful. (Sigh).

krf