[m-dev.] for review: the new debugger command set (part 2 of 5)

[Tyson Dowd]

On 16-Sep-1998, Zoltan Somogyi <zs at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> + at node Mercury debugger invocation
> + at section Mercury debugger invocation
> +
> +The executables of Mercury programs
> +by default do not invoke the Mercury debugger
> +even if some or all of their modules were compiled with some form of tracing,
> +and even if the grade of the executable includes @code{debug}.
> +This is similar to the behavior of executables
> +created by the implementations of other languages;
> +for example the executable of a C program compiled with -g
> +does not autonomously invoke gdb or dbx etc when it is executed.

I suggest using "automatically" rather than "autonomously", it's a
more common wording.

> + at node Debugger commands
> + at section Debugger commands
> +
> +When the debugger (as opposed to the program being debugged) is interacting
> +with the user, the debugger prints a prompt and reads in a line of text,
> +which it will interpret as its next command. Each command line consists
> +of several words separated by white space. The first word is the name of
> +the command, while any other words give options and/or parameters to the
> +command.
> +
> +Some commands take a number as their first parameter.
> +For such commands, users can type `@var{number} @var{command}'
> +as well as `@var{command} @var{number}'.
> +The debugger will internally transform the former into the latter,
> +even if the number and the command are not separated by white space.

I don't think it's important to specify the implemenation, particularly
as it might change and then you'd have to remember to update this
piece of documentation.

-- 
       Tyson Dowd           # There isn't any reason why Linux can't be
                            # implemented as an enterprise computing solution.
     trd at cs.mu.oz.au        # Find out what you've been missing while you've
http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~trd # been rebooting Windows NT. -- InfoWorld, 1998.