On 26 Sep 2000, Johan Vromans wrote:
> Perl6 RFC Librarian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > The ability to easily retrieve and edit your N most recent commands to the
> > debugger (much like a bash_history).
> and
> > A better default pager. The default pager should assume a 24x80 term
> > window ...
>
> To me, these clearly indicates that the debugger should be run as a
> subsystem of some other tool that takes care of this. It is not part
> of the debugger itself. For example, take a look at how emacs runs the
> debugger.
I'm confused...are you suggesting that the debugger should no
longer be integrated into perl? If so, I disagree...I absolutely insist
that, no matter what pathological distribution someone may put together
for Perl, I will get the debugger so at least I have a chance of figuring
out what's wrong. The only way to absolutely ensure this is to have it
built into the interpreter itself.
As to the history file...this is something that I've wanted since
I first touched the debugger, and I suspect others would like it as well.
As to the pager...the "default pager" is currently "no pager", which is
silly. I distinctly remember having the following thought pattern, from
back when I was learning how to use the debugger:
"Ok, what commands are available? Let's type 'h' "
"Hmm...it scrolls off the screen...aha! look, down here at the
bottom it says I can do '|dbcmd' to pipe the output of a debugger command
through the current pager! Excellent, that's just what I need."
" '|h' " [it runs off the screen again]
"DOH!"
All humor aside, there is too much information in the debugger
help screen to fit in 50 lines. That means that anyone trying to use the
debugger through a DOS window, or a fixed-size telnet client, can't see
the majority of the information.
Dave
