# New Rails 1.2.1 Error with text\_area

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-rails-1-2-1-error-with-text-area/82651>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 19, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-rails-1-2-1-error-with-text-area/82651 "2007-01-19T16:32:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/EgonJGF)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-rails-1-2-1-error-with-text-area/82651/1 "2007-01-19T16:32:00Z")

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I just upgraded to Rails 1.2.1, and I’m suddenly seeing this area  
whenever my code calls for a text\_area (this code has been working for  
a long while in 1.1.6:

private method `split’ called for 60:Fixnum

The code surrounding the error is…

12:

\<%= text\_area ‘link’, ‘description’, :size =\> 60,  
:rows =\> 2 %\>

The app trace looks like this…

C:/Program  
Files/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.1/lib/action\_view/helpers/form\_helper.rb:288:in  
`to_text_area_tag' C:/Program Files/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.1/lib/action_view/helpers/form_helper.rb:190:in`text\_area’  
#{RAILS\_ROOT}/app/views/links/\_form.rhtml:12:in  
`_run_rhtml_47app47views47links47_form46rhtml' #{RAILS_ROOT}/app/views/links/new.rhtml:17:in`\_run\_rhtml\_47app47views47links47new46rhtml’  
-e:4

Has anyone else come across this error, and knows of a solution?

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/EgonJGF)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 4:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-rails-1-2-1-error-with-text-area/82651/2 "2007-01-19T16:49:06Z")

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Hi Egon,

> I just upgraded to Rails 1.2.1, and I’m suddenly seeing this area  
> whenever my code calls for a text\_area (this code has been  
> working for a long while in 1.1.6:
> 
> private method `split’ called for 60:Fixnum
> 
> The code surrounding the error is…
> 
> 12:
> 
> \<%= text\_area ‘link’, ‘description’, :size =\> 60,  
> :rows =\> 2 %\>

Try :  
\<%= text\_area ‘link’, ‘description’, size =\> ‘60x2’ %\>

– Jean-François.

–  
À la renverse.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/EgonJGF)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-rails-1-2-1-error-with-text-area/82651/3 "2007-01-19T16:51:07Z")

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Think I might have found the answer, though I’m not really sure why  
it’s an issue.

If I remove the :size =\> 60 clause from the text\_area, everything  
works fine.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/EgonJGF)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-rails-1-2-1-error-with-text-area/82651/4 "2007-01-19T17:07:10Z")

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Jean-François wrote:

> Try :  
> \<%= text\_area ‘link’, ‘description’, size =\> ‘60x2’ %\>
> 
> – Jean-François.

That worked great! Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/EgonJGF)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-rails-1-2-1-error-with-text-area/82651/5 "2007-01-19T17:17:11Z")

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Andrew F. wrote:

> Just a thought, but the textarea HTML tag uses rows and cols attributes  
> to define its dimensions (or CSS seems to work too).
> 
> Hope that helps,  
> Andrew

Ah. Good point. That’d likely be the correct place to do it-- get it  
out of the .rhtml altogether.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@EgonJGF](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/EgonJGF)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/new-rails-1-2-1-error-with-text-area/82651/6 "2007-01-19T17:12:11Z")

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> 12:
> 
> \<%= text\_area ‘link’, ‘description’, :size =\> 60,  
> :rows =\> 2 %\>

Just a thought, but the textarea HTML tag uses rows and cols attributes  
to define its dimensions (or CSS seems to work too).

Hope that helps,  
Andrew