Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!hacgate!ashtate!dbase!awd From: awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: Problem with LSC 4.0 debugger. Summary: You've got a point... Message-ID: <254@dbase.UUCP> Date: 25 Sep 89 18:43:09 GMT References: <85031@pyramid.pyramid.com> <244@dbase.UUCP> <85347@pyramid.pyramid.com> Distribution: na Organization: Ashton Tate Devlopment Center Glendale, Calif. Lines: 30 In article <85347@pyramid.pyramid.com>, bjb@pyramid.pyramid.com (Bruce Beare) writes: > > (referring to my response) > I am not sure exactly what position you are taking. I think that you are > saying "If the program can't see the variable from the current PC, then > the debugger should not be able to display it." Yes, you're right; that's what I'm saying. I expect a source-level debugger to show me the value of variables which are in context. If the program can't see a variable in a particular context, I don't expect that the debugger can, either. > I certainly don't agree with the above statement. > 1) The debugging programmer needs all the help that they can get. > 2) The "context argument" can be turned around for the purposes of this > argument. i.e. "The debugger should be able to set the context > in which the memory display/modify request in the data window > will be interpreted/executed." This means that when you do a > "set context" on a line in the data window, the line will > obey all of the scope rules for the selected context. I thought about this after I posted my reply: You didn't seem confused that the program context hid the variable, you were upset that the debugger wasn't magical enough. That's certainly a valid addition to the wish list, so I retract my snide comments about not buying C compilers unless you know C. I guess our only continuing disagreement, then, is where to put a global- context debugger on the priority list. It seems like a lot of pain for only a little gain, to me, so I'd put it fairly low on the list. /alastair/