!header dev-utils nomain

h1.    The Ruby dev-utils Project

!toc

h2.        About dev-utils

p. @dev-utils@ provides utilites to assist the process of developing Ruby
programs.  At the moment, the target areas are debugging and unit testing
(planned).

Version 1.0 was released on 2004-10-08 as a RubyGem.  RPA and tarball
installation will be provided shortly in 1.0.1.  Throughout this
documentation, there are references to planned features.  These will be
released in 2.0, for which there is no estimated completion date.

h3.            Debugging

With @dev-utils/debug@ you can:

* Escape to an IRB session from a running program.

<pre style="margin-left:5em">
  breakpoint
  breakpoint 'Person#name'           # Identify it when it happens.
  breakpoint { @name }               # Default return value.
</pre>

* Access a no-config logfile for debugging.

<pre style="margin-left:5em">
  debug 'Database connection established'   # Look in ./debug.log
</pre>

* Trace expressions in that logfile.

<pre style="margin-left:5em">
  trace 'x + y'
  trace 'Process.pid'
  trace 'names', :pp                 # Pretty-print.
  trace 'page_structure', :yaml      # YAML representation.
</pre>

* %(planned)Find the difference between complex objects (planned).%

For more information, see "Debugging Aids":DebuggingAids.html.

<div class="planned">

h3.            Unit Testing (Planned)

With @dev-utils/test@ you can:
* Run some or all of your unit tests, automatically finding the library code.
* Load test data from a separate data directory.

For more information, see "Unit Test Organisation":UnitTestOrganisation.html.

</div>


h2.        Internet Links

|{width:25ex}. Home page: | "http://dev-utils.rubyforge.org":home             |
| Project page:           | "http://rubyforge.org/projects/dev-utils":project |
| Download:               | "http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=270":download |
| API Documentation:      | "http://dev-utils.rubyforge.org/api":api          |

[home]http://dev-utils.rubyforge.org
[project]http://rubyforge.org/projects/dev-utils
[download]http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=270
[api]http://dev-utils.rubyforge.org/api


h2.        Administrivia

h3.          Credits

The breakpoint-related code was contributed unwittingly by Joel VanderWerf and
Florian Gross.  The rest of the code is by Gavin Sinclair.

h3.          Notes

p. @dev-utils@ depends on "@extensions@":http://extensions.rubyforge.org, version
0.5 or greater.

Runnable examples are located in the @examples@ directory of the distribution.

h3.          License

Copyright (c) 2004, Gavin Sinclair.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: 

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software. 

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.