[m-dev.] debugger command set

[Peter Ross]

On 11-Nov-1998, Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> Zoltan asked for comments on the debugger command set.
> Here are my suggestions:
> 
> 	- I would prefer `alias p print' rather than the current
> 	  `alias p print *'; I find myself forever typing `p 1'.
> 
> 	- If you type the wrong number of arguments, it would be
> 	  better for the debugger to just say 
> 
> 	  	mdb: print: usage error -- type `help print' for help
> 	
> 	  rather than for it to just print the help message, as it
> 	  does currently.
> 	  The behaviour of printing the help message without any
> 	  indication of why it was printed is confusing, and
> 	  it's annoying for a simple typo to cause so much output,
> 	  since it scrolls all the useful stuff that you printed
> 	  out previously off the screen.
> 
> 	- A command for printing the type of a variable would be nice.
> 	  In fact, the `v' (vars) command which lists them could do that.
> 
> 	- It would be helpful if the `up', `down', and `level' commands could
> 	  print out a trace line showing where you are, like they do in gdb.
> 

I like the above suggestions.

On another point, I think that the system wide mdbrc file should be
always be sourced, then if there is a local .mdbrc then its values
should override the ones in the system file.  It is extremely annoying
that I have to replicate the entire system file to alias p to print.

Pete.