Debugger
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg91637] Debugger
- From: dh <dh at metrohm.ch>
- Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:51:54 -0400 (EDT)
Hello,
I was trying to use the new Debugger and I do not find it very obvious
to use. Astonishingly I could not find any descent manual or
description. Here are some quirks I encoutered:
To begin with, on the Debugger palette there are two commands:
Step In
Step In to Body
However, under Menu/Evaluation/DebuggerControl one only finds one
step-in command. What does the second one do?
I started small:
f[x_]:=x^2;
f[2]
I set a breakPoint at f[2] and evaluated the whole thing. The brakpoint
is ignored. Then I added a semicolon: f[2]; selected this and defined it
as a breakpoint. This is also ignored. By trial and error I found that
one has to select the statement without the seimicolon before defining
the breakpoint. Can somebody make senes out of this?
I then made the function a little mode complex:
f[x_]:=(t=x;x^2);
f[2]
If I select t=x; and define a breakpoint, the selection is automatically
enlarged to the whole block inside the brackets. By selecting only t=x,
this does not happen. Otherwise things work as expected.
Next I defined a watch point "t" and wrote Dynamic[t]. In a separate
cell I the evaluated:
t=3;
t=4;
This worked as expected, also:
f[x_]:=t=x;
f[3];
f[4];
However, if I made t a local variable:
f[x_]:=Module[{t},t=x];
f[3];
f[4];
the watchpoint did nor work anymore, the program did not halt.
Now I fed up and I think I am wasting my time. It may be that I really
miss something, but just now it looks to me like the Debugger is an
early beta version and should not be part of a not exactly cheap
commercial program!
Daniel
--
Daniel Huber
Metrohm Ltd.
Oberdorfstr. 68
CH-9100 Herisau
Tel. +41 71 353 8585, Fax +41 71 353 8907
E-Mail:<mailto:dh at metrohm.com>
Internet:<http://www.metrohm.com>