Watir being a library for ruby, some familiarity with ruby is assumed as a prerequisite for using it. That includes familiarity with ruby's environment, including irb and rubygems. Likewise, opening a command prompt is something we assume people know how to do. There are many excellent resources for getting started with ruby which go over rubygems and irb, and perhaps linking to some from watir's documentation would be helpful, but watir's documentation doesn't need to be another resource for that. Introducing people to all the needed technology is well beyond the scope of watir's documentation - it doesn't tell you how to use rubygems, it doesn't tell you how to use irb, it doesn't tell you how to use your operating system, it doesn't tell you how to buy a computer. Having used a great variety of ruby libraries, I've found watir's to be relatively thorough (in many cases with less well documented libraries I end up simply reading ruby source for lack of any real docs). Lastly, it's a wiki - please do make any improvements you see fit. That is infinitely more helpful than trashing the work that people have put into the existing documentation.
On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 23:41, John Williams <[email protected]> wrote: > Solution: In Ruby 1.8.4 or later, you need to preceed the "require > 'watir'" command with "require 'rubygems'". > > How frustrating that this is not pointed out in the Watir > documentation or examples. I found the solution in another discussion > forum. > > In general I'm very disappointed with the sorry state of Watir > installation documentation, all of which seems ad hoc, poorly > integrated and universalized, and taking for granted big steps (e.g. > using IRB, creating scripts in .rb files, executing .rb files, etc). > Curiously, nearly all Watir documentation jumps right from installing > the gems to using the Watir API, ignoring such critical steps as > opening a Command Prompt with Ruby, opening IRB, requiring rubygems, > editing and executing a .rb file, etc. Of course the Watir > documentation shouldn't have to explain Ruby, IRB, or any other > integrated technology in detail, but it should give the necessary > steps in order to successfully complete a basic Watir command for > someone like me who wasn't familiar with Ruby or IRB and certainly has > no clue about which gems need to be required. > > Cheers, > John > > > On Apr 7, 7:56 pm, John Williams <[email protected]> wrote: > > I couldn't get FireWatir to work on Mac, so I'm trying a more basic > > installation (I hope) of Watir with IE for Windows XP. After > > successfully installing the latest Ruby, RubyGems, and Watir 1.6.5, > > every Watir script I run chokes on the "require" command with the > > error "no such file to load". This occurs whether I am executing a > > Ruby script or typing "require 'watir'" in the IRB command line. > > Clearly Ruby can't find "watir". > > > > Since Watir installed successfully, do I need to use "require" > > commands from any particular directory? > > > > Any suggestions appreciated! > > > > Thanks, > > John > > -- > Before posting, please read http://watir.com/support. In short: search > before you ask, be nice. > > You received this message because you are subscribed to > http://groups.google.com/group/watir-general > To post: [email protected] > > To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject. > -- Before posting, please read http://watir.com/support. In short: search before you ask, be nice. You received this message because you are subscribed to http://groups.google.com/group/watir-general To post: [email protected]
