On Fri, Feb 3, 2017 at 12:28 AM, Denis Kudriashov <dionisi...@gmail.com> wrote: > > 2017-02-02 17:16 GMT+01:00 John Brant <br...@refactoryworkers.com>: >> >> I think my preference would be to have several tabs for the variables. In >> addition to the one tab that we have now that shows all variables, I can >> think of tabs for locals, inst vars, interesting variables, watched >> variables/expressions, and stack variables. Locals would show just the >> method/block arguments and any temps defined in the method. >> Inst vars would >> show the object's inst vars (and maybe class vars, however these would only >> appear after the inst vars). >> >> Interesting variables would show locals and inst vars used by the method. >> The locals would be limited to the ones that are still active at the current >> location in the method. For example, if you are in a block, it would only >> show variables used in the block.
>> Also, if you are before(/after) the first(/final) use of the variable, >> it wouldn't show in the interesting list. I'm not sure I'd like variables slipping in and out and rearranging the middle of the list I'm looking at. Perhaps scope could be indicated another way like greying out variables. It would be okay for block variables to be added at the bottom. >> Interesting variables should also do some analysis to see what accessor >> methods are used and show their corresponding variables. This is a nice idea. It need not only be for interesting variables. Ideally it would be a tab in the next pane to the right of the [Meta] tab, but I guess its difficult since that pane is concerned with the object, and linking back to the variable holding could be difficult. >> >> Watched variables/expressions would be user controlled. The user could >> add/remove variables or expressions. These variables/expressions would >> remain across different methods. If a variable didn't exist in the other >> method, "Invalid" could be displayed. I really miss this from my TurboPascal days. The difficulty of course is avoiding side effects. >> >> Finally, stack variables would display the whole stack and not just the >> top item. I like the ability to see the stack top, but it really doesn't >> work if you want to see the first argument of a two argument message send. >> For example, if you debug "Array with: OrderedCollection new with: Set new", >> stepping over the "OrderedCollection new" immediately pushes the "Set" class >> on the stack so you can't see the "OrderedCollection new" object. Perhaps the stack could be another tab next to [Variables] ? Or maybe it [Stack] would be better as a tab of thisContext's next pane. >> >> >> BTW, the current variable list sometimes shows 'error obtaining field >> value' for temporaries when stepping through a method. I'm not sure why it >> occurs, but it should always be able to display the temp variables. > > > I want everything you suggest :) So we should try in Pharo 7. cheers -ben
