Serious applications

[Alex Rice]

On Feb 25, 2004, at 8:41 AM, Rob Cozens wrote:

>
> The following is not a rhetorical question: I asked this once before & 
> did not see an answer posted.
>
> Does the CW, or any C debugger, debug at the source code level?

Absolutely. Many C IDEs have debuggers that shame Runrev's "debugger". 
Apple's XCode being my favorite. XCode's integration with the IDE's 
code editor is seamless also.

One day I hope Runrev can offer a better debugger. It's still a mystery 
to me how Runrev can have a higher level, more dynamic, more flexible 
language, but have a worse debugger than many C IDEs. I hope it's more 
attributable to growing pains, than to something fundamental with the 
engine.

> Can the C testing environment take you directly to the line of code 
> generating a runtime error? ...and let you change the offending code, 
> close the script, and continue testing without recompiling & 
> relinking?

Yep, modern C compilers are pretty smart. Some, like IBM and Symantec, 
have had "imcremental compilation" for a while now. Where the 
compile/link step is all but eliminated.

Apple's XCode has a couple of features "Zero Link" and "Fix and 
Continue". With those features turned on, compilation is more or less 
immediate. "Fix and Continue" means changing code without restarting 
the app.

Even more amazing about XCode is it's free and uses the GCC/GDB tool 
chain which is standard across most Unixes. 
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/xcode/>

None of this stuff is *as fast* as Command-0, Command-9 in Runrev to go 
from Pointer Tool to Browse Tool, however.

But more and more the compile/link part of C programming is being 
"hidden" as an option. Don't anyone think I'm advocating C/C++ over 
Runrev. Keep C where it belongs: for writing runrev externals only :-)

--
Alex Rice | Mindlube Software | http://mindlube.com