I met up with a friend to record something, and I misunderstood the ‘Punch In/Out’ buttons to mean ‘Record w/ count-in’. In any case, we were sitting there for a good amount of time not being able to record anything, because without Punch markers present, Ardour will simply not record anything.
A warning log message that gets emitted when 1. recording starts, 2. Punch In/Out is set, 3. no Punch markers exist would be dandy.
What did you think they were for?
I didn’t know the difference between ‘punch in’ and ‘count in’ (not a native speaker), so I thought the ‘Punch In’ button would do what ‘Record w/Count-In’ does in the Transport menu. As for the ‘Punch Out’ button… I believe I hadn’t thought that far ahead. 
Ardour does record without punch markers just fine.
I assume you have enabled “Punch In” and without a punch-range. We should perhaps make those buttons insensitive if there is no punch-range.
Yes, exactly, that’s what I’ve been doing: I (erroneously) enabled Punch In, didn’t set any Punch markers, and tried to start recording. Sorry for phrasing it badly.
Disabling the buttons sounds like a good solution as well, yes.
I remember when punch-in and punch-out markers were the numbers scrolling on a tape counter while my band mate’s finger hovered above the pause/unpause button on my 4-track cassette recorder. The method was simple, and the results were occasionally not terrible. 