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000127_icon-group-sender _Thu Aug 17 19:21:00 1995.msg
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1995-09-18
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3KB
Received: by cheltenham.cs.arizona.edu; Thu, 17 Aug 1995 16:33:14 MST
To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
Date: 17 Aug 1995 19:21:00 GMT
From: hs@metis.ele.kth.se (Hakan Soderstrom)
Message-Id: <HS.95Aug17212100@metis.ele.kth.se>
Organization: Dept. of Electronics, KTH
Sender: icon-group-request@cs.arizona.edu
References: <Pine.HPP.3.91.950725141502.13359C-100000@mpih17>
Subject: Re: ICON debugger?
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
I did not see the original posting from Maarten v. Casteren
(casteren@mpi.nl) asking for an Icon debugger. There is a package
called 'itweak' in the Icon repository which you may want to try.
/cs.arizona.edu:/icon/contrib/
-rw-rw-r-- 1 14 115797 Aug 6 1994 itweak-2.2.tar.Z
-rw-rw-r-- 1 14 85506 Aug 16 1994 itweak.lzh
The story goes as follows. I was intrigued by the 'debugify'
ground-breaking package written by cas@netcom.com (Charles
A. Shartsis). However, when debugging sizable programs I found, among
other things, that the run-time overhead could be intolerable. After
mulling and musing for some time I got a new idea which became
'itweak'. I spent considerable effort on making it a useful tool even
in a production environment. I use it myself for any non-trivial Icon
programming.
The principle is the same as in 'debugify': tweaking the ucode. (You
code, I tweak -- that's where 'itweak' comes from.-) The overhead, in
space as well in time is radically reduced, as compared to 'debugify'.
Not only can you set breakpoints with 'itweak'. You can also evaluate
almost any Icon expressions interactively. (Which means that you can
inspect the values of local and global variables.) You can build
macros for automatic execution at breakpoints. Breakpoints can be
conditional. It handles programs built from multiple source files.
The 'itweak' debugging system really becomes part of your program. For
that reason 'itweak' does not rely on Icon functions to have their
usual names. Thus 'itweak' continues to work even if you redefine a
function name (for instance: write := 5).
I have been astonished by the almost total silence around itweak. I
thought a decent interactive debugger would fill an important gap in
the Icon programming environment.
It's even documented. And there is interactive help for all commands.
Try it out and judge for yourself! I'll be glad to hear from you.
Hakan
--
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Hakan Soderstrom | hs@soderstrom.se
Soderstrom Programvaruverkstad AB | Voice: +46 (8) 722 7320
Bandhagsvagen 51 | Fax: +46 (8) 817980
S-122 42 Enskede, SWEDEN |