Wish: Beta: Debug - limit Global variables shown

[nfordbscndrd]

As great as the new Debug feature is, its listing the state of ALL Views (about 100 in my app) and the values of all global variables (150-200 for me) creates a long list to have to scroll through when interested mainly in only a few variables (or even just one).

If it were possible to specify just a few variables to list, it would really make things easier.

(I'm posting this here instead of in "Questions..." since it is not a bug report. Hope that's okay. I figure you are not interested in wishes now, but if you could just file this away...)

 

[corwin42]

I think the best would be a tree view for objects which have more than one member like the eclipse debugger shows its information.

Another good thing would be the possibility to create something like a watchlist which will be displayed in a seperate window.

 

[nfordbscndrd]

I agree 100%.

 

[Erel]

I'm not sure that a tree view will help in this case. Instead of a large list you will have a large tree.
Note that you can also hover with the mouse over a variable in the code to see its value.

 

[nfordbscndrd]

I was agreeing with the watch list idea. Hovering over a variable doesn't help that much when there are 200 or more items in the list to scroll through to get to the 2 or 3 variables that you want to watch.

 

[agraham]

Hovering over a variable doesn't help that much

You did realise that Erel means hovering over it in the IDE source code pane didn't you?

 

[klaus]

I have 'played' quite a bit with the new version these last days.
I am very pleased with the new debugger, it is really TOP.
Hovering over variable names in the IDE and the display of their values, hovering over view names displaying it's parameters, is a big PLUS.
I was reported a bug in one program, with the new debugger it took me just a few minutes to find it, with the previous version I should have to add a lot of Logs.

Perhaps one suggestion for the variable list: allow sorting in alphabetic order and seperate variables and views. At the moment the order is the declaration order.

Best regards.

 

[stevel05]

I wholeheartedly agree with Klaus, the debugger is going to be a godsend, and will save a lot of time. I'm already using it in tandem with 1.3 to help find bugs, it's so much easier.

For the next one, can we have a logic debugger that can read my mind and sort out my logic issues automatically?

Steve

 

[kickaha]

I wholeheartedly agree with Klaus, the debugger is going to be a godsend, and will save a lot of time. I'm already using it in tandem with 1.3 to help find bugs, it's so much easier.

For the next one, can we have a logic debugger that can read my mind and sort out my logic issues automatically?

Steve

I started writing one of these once. Had to scrap it as every time I connected I got a NULL pointer exception

 

[stevel05]

I started writing one of these once. Had to scrap it as every time I connected I got a NULL pointer exception

Yes, that's a very real danger here too! It would be inherently buggy.

 

[nfordbscndrd]

You did realise that Erel means hovering over it in the IDE source code pane didn't you?

Actually, I don't think that I *did* realize that. That certainly helps with the problem of tracking a few variables out of 100+. Thanks for pointing that out.

That just leaves the problem of not being able to see the values of all the elements in an array such as All(4,4,4,13).

 

[nfordbscndrd]

...That just leaves the problem of not being able to see the values of all the elements in an array such as All(4,4,4,13).

An ideal solution would be that when hovering over an array in the code, just show the value of the array for the elements specified (like VB6 does) instead of trying to show all 832 values in the array All(4,4,4,13).

For example, for an array like All(p1, p2, s, c) where p1=3, p2=1, s=2, c=7, just show the value of All(3, 1, 2, 7). Since those values already exist in the debug lists (Global or Local), it should be easy to do this (where "easy" is work that Erel has to do and not me).

 

[Erel]

In VB6 or Basic4ppc the debugger implementation is much much simpler as your are debugging a local process. In Basic4android you are debugging a remote process that runs on a different machine. All the data should be sent from the device to the IDE over a TCP connection.
As the variables data can be very long, the data must be truncated in some cases. I have plans to further improve the debugger and allow it to send requests for specific variables, and receive more information.

 

[nfordbscndrd]

Yeah, I was afraid it wasn't really "easy". I'll be patient.

 

[vangogh]

I'm not sure that a tree view will help in this case. Instead of a large list you will have a large tree.
Note that you can also hover with the mouse over a variable in the code to see its value.

it the variable is an array, you don't get "that" variable value but the list

example
dim a(100) as int

hover on a(90) shows all the values from 0 to 99 (and you can't read all because the latter are out of screen)