Use of the Debugger ?

[Francis Nugent Dixon]

Hi from Paris,

To continue after Jaqueline's and Richard's comments.

Interesting subject. Maybe we could ask other people
if they use the debugger ?

> Richard Gaskin wrote:
>
> My first reaction is to pick my jaw up off the floor. How
> can you not use the debugger much? I *live* in the
> debugger!  Who can program without a debugger?
> You are making more work for yourself, I think.

I used HC every day for more than 10 years, and now
I use Revolution every day. I never used HC debugging,
and I haven't even thought about Revolution debugging !
I don't even know how it works.

I write my programs in bed (light switched off, no paper
and pencil), just do it in my head ! The next day, I code
in my scripts using (now) a very rigid naming convention
for fields, globals, locals, etc. And I'm up and running
in no time. I still draw little flow diagrams for sections
of my coding that may be complicated - that saves a
lot of hassle.  Old habits die hard !

One thing I have found very useful. I declare globals
for every local, during testing, and then comment out
the global definitions after testing. They will be available
in the future, if I make any major mods to my scripts.

I use the "do" command often, but in the form :

          put xxxxxxxxxxxx into DoIt  -- DoIt is a global
         do DoIt

Then I can see if I blew it !

I have a header card on my stacks (which I build
from pre-prepared models). I have displayglobals,
displayfields and displaybuttons functions available
in all my stacks, to see what I have defined. I often
code "exit xxx" in my scripts during testing, and comment
them out as I go. My only gripe is that the Variable Watcher
doesn't update in real-time. You have to close it and
open it again, each time. But then, I am just about to
create a button to do this ........... !

I keep all my functions and standard handlers in a
separate stack, and copy them into my new stacks
as required. Of course, they are clearly documented
with version numbers and dates, so I know what
changes/improvements I made, and when.  I generate
quite a few scripts (like Export and Import), and move them
into my new stacks, etc, etc.   .......

Debugger ? Could it be useful for untidy minds ?
Revolution is SO EASY to code, that it may offer
fertiliser for sloppy coding ......

And I was always against using the computer to find
my errors!

OK - just to be sure, I will invest in some time to
use debugger, just to see if it saves me more time.

I, for one, DON'T write perfect coding.

- Francis

"Nothing should ever be done for the first time !"