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couple minor suggestions for SDBG

 
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DanRRight



Joined: 10 Mar 2008
Posts: 2813
Location: South Pole, Antarctica

PostPosted: Tue Jun 15, 2010 10:25 pm    Post subject: couple minor suggestions for SDBG Reply with quote

1) would be nice to get mouse wheel working in SDBG windows too.

2) Always spend time to find in SDBG menu how to make LET command in debugger... Is there any easy way to remind?

3) Some commands are allowed in source window, some in Variables window. How about show them all in the main structure which will jump where it is needed for you ?

4) Adding tracking of opening and closing file units: DSBG makes the whole list of all used I/O units in the code. The user can put USE (OPEN) or READ/WRITE condition on the unit. Say, some large code makes rear write ones per hour from some part of the code you do not know (many of such lines are spread everywhere)

write(154,file=...)ABC

Catching this moment is additionally hard if there are 30 or 130 or even more units opening and closing from some spaghetti code circa 1974. But if the USE I/O UNIT condition on specific unit 154 will be implemented like it is done for regular variables - then like with Winnie the Pooh "the fish will be really easy to catch"

5) This is probably very hard to implement suggestion: debugging in reverse order.
Say you are waiting for some event in the not very well familiar to you large spaghetti code. Waiting for example, some output to the screen. When it will happen - it's already too late, the code passed needed point. But what needed is the following: you immediately go to the debugger as fast as you can and SDBG will have the ability to go step by step BACK instead of just forward. That would be damn killing option

6) Just suggestion to improve the general look and decrease first time user confusion: make all windows appear in better structured position when you open SDBG for the first time. I for example have larger fortran source window in the middle, then to the right - narrow long window of all variables, at the bottom narrow window of subroutines. Resembles Intel Fortran, but it was used before in many others too


Last edited by DanRRight on Sat Jun 19, 2010 7:22 am; edited 1 time in total
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PaulLaidler
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Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 7916
Location: Salford, UK

PostPosted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 7:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am not the person to respond to your suggestions but the following comments might help.

1) With the latest Plato you can elect to have SDBG fully integrated with Plato. You get this option in the Options dialog box. With this option you will at least be able to scroll throught the code using the mouse wheel.

2) It is not feasible to back track whilst debugging but you can set a break point and restart the run. This is simple to do if the run only passes the current point once. Otherwise there is the facility to use an enhanced break point where you can set the count to the required number of passes.
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DanRRight



Joined: 10 Mar 2008
Posts: 2813
Location: South Pole, Antarctica

PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2010 7:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

1) Never used Plato, or used is so long ago so i forgot this fact completely...I use SDBG directly and compile from the BAT file. Well, will look how it handles mouse scroll, thanks for suggestion.

2) Made a typo ( which is now fixed) from which it followed that the code is well familiar to debugging it person. Actually i meant that when the code is NOT very well known, is somebody else made code, you do not know what and where to expect it will strike. You do not know precisely where to place a breakpoint, there is million potential possibilities when you ar not familiar with the code, you're just waiting for many minutes or even hours to get the suspitious printout. "The movie backward" feature would help in this case a lot.
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