Comments on: Medicine versus mortuary in the debugger http://blog.amber.org/2009/05/09/medicine-versus-mortuary-in-the-debugger/ Thoughts of a minor lunatic Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:55:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Edward Ocampo-Gooding http://blog.amber.org/2009/05/09/medicine-versus-mortuary-in-the-debugger/comment-page-1/#comment-54126 Edward Ocampo-Gooding Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:50:25 +0000 http://blog.amber.org/?p=3680#comment-54126 I’ve been trying to pin down why watching Avi Bryant fly through some Seaside development once was like watching someone perform magic, having only really used gdb in its variety of forms, but calling its debugger “a doctor with a time-machine” is incredibly apt. I’ve been trying to pin down why watching Avi Bryant fly through some Seaside development once was like watching someone perform magic, having only really used gdb in its variety of forms, but calling its debugger “a doctor with a time-machine” is incredibly apt.

]]> By: Patrick Mueller http://blog.amber.org/2009/05/09/medicine-versus-mortuary-in-the-debugger/comment-page-1/#comment-54088 Patrick Mueller Sat, 09 May 2009 19:57:37 +0000 http://blog.amber.org/?p=3680#comment-54088 Eclipse's Java debugger allows some amount of changing code while running. Can't add fields or methods to a class, but you can change the method bodies. Better than nothing. Sadly, JavaScript debuggers are more or less read-only. It's not even clear what "reloading" code, if you could change it in a JavaScript debugger would mean. It's also the case that things like "reload" require things like "pop stack frame", which JavaScript VM external APIs generally don't support. I say sad, because JS is a fantastically dynamic language that could have debugging capabilities ala Smalltalk. Eclipse’s Java debugger allows some amount of changing code while running. Can’t add fields or methods to a class, but you can change the method bodies. Better than nothing.

Sadly, JavaScript debuggers are more or less read-only. It’s not even clear what “reloading” code, if you could change it in a JavaScript debugger would mean. It’s also the case that things like “reload” require things like “pop stack frame”, which JavaScript VM external APIs generally don’t support.

I say sad, because JS is a fantastically dynamic language that could have debugging capabilities ala Smalltalk.

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