Binary Code

Ran into an odd error today, the result of this line in a library I’m using:

raise '@level is blank. Did you override the allow_to method in your controller?' if @level.blank?

A quick check of my code and “err no, I don’t think so. Should I?”

Yes I should, and in that then call super() to initialize @level. So I rewrote the error message in that lib to read as the following, because I know it’s going to bite me again some time:

raise '@level is blank. Did you override the allow_to method in your controller? You should, and call super() from within it.' if @level.blank?

Bad error messages throw up an error number. Mediocre ones hint at the problem. Good error messages point the way to a solution.