[m-dev.] Grade confusion

[Mark Brown]

On Sat, Nov 15, 2014 at 5:03 PM, Paul Bone <paul at bone.id.au> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I saw this question on stackoverflow.com
>
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26916819/how-do-i-compile-for-debugging-in-mercury-programming-language/26943053#26943053
>
> I'm pretty sure that adding a grade flag merely adds that grade component
> onto the default or specified grade.  So that if my default grade is hlc.gc
> and I need to use asm_fast.gc.debug for debugging specifying --debug won't
> do what I need.  In this case someone who reads the debugging part of the
> user guide which instructs them to use --debug may be confused.
>
> A number of new users have commented on how Mercury's large number of grades
> make things confusing, however that problem is going to take a long time to
> solve.  In the interim, I propose changing the user guide.  Any thoughts?

I have no idea what you are proposing to change the user guide to.

The seemingly obvious solution to your problem is for the --debug
option to select one of the debug grades that is actually installed,
if possible. So there could be two default grades, the usual one and
one with debugging. Please don't tell me you think this will take a
long time to solve.

Cheers,
Mark.