Turn Off Double-Entry?

[J. Landman Gay]

Richard Gaskin wrote:
> J. Landman Gay wrote:
>>> Often it will step though a couple lines of code then drop to the 
>>> bottom of the handler. You can set debug checkpoints which do not 
>>> trigger the debugger at all.
>>
>> This one is a known, and intentional, escape procedure. It happens 
>> when there is a bug in a script that is called from your debugging 
>> script, such as one in a library or backscript. If there is a bug in 
>> there, the engine will go into an infinite loop (which is what happens 
>> in the MC IDE, and you have to force-quit.)
> 
> Please send details to either me or the MC list, and I'll address it 
> ASAP.  I don't use the debugger much myself, but cleaning it up and 
> enhancing it might get me to do so. :)

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.

My second reaction is, yes, if I can find a reproducible example I will 
send it to you, but I'm not sure it can be fixed. It has been in the MC 
engine since I came on board, Scott Raney knew about it, we discussed 
it, and he didn't fix it. Since that was very rare behavior for him, it 
must be hard to repair. The Rev team knows about it, and provided an 
escape route but the core problem is still there. It may just be a 
function of how the engine has to work, and there may be very little we 
can do to fix it.

> 
> ...
>> In my case, one of the bugs was in libURL. Every time I tried to debug 
>> my downloading scripts, I got the skipped handler business. I was 
>> finally able to track it down by setting breakpoints in libURL itself 
>> -- at which point Dave Cragg immediately fixed the problem.
> 
> libURL has probably the lowest bug density of any substantial Transcript 
> work I've seen.  Amazing, admirable, and inspiring effort, Dave.

I can't say enough good things about Dave. He has consistently supported 
libURL like a true pro, and always with good grace and humor. What a guy.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com