On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 6:29 PM, John Smth <blip / blipit.com> wrote:
> Sorry to show ignorance - what exactly is contained in a back trace?

The last steps of your program before it gave up, and refused to do
its work (more or less).

More technical, it's the steps the program did that led to the error.

For example:

PS C:\Users\Anonymous> ruby -e "puts variable"
-e:1:in `<main>': undefined local variable or method `variable' for
main:Object (NameError)

The line below the PS, etc. would be the backtrace. A failed require
action looks much more complicated, but it usually tells us the
condition your program was in when the error occurred.

-- 
Phillip Gawlowski

Though the folk I have met,
(Ah, how soon!) they forget
When I've moved on to some other place,
There may be one or two,
When I've played and passed through,
Who'll remember my song or my face.