[m-dev.] for review: the new debugger command set (part 1 of 5)

[Tyson Dowd]

On 16-Sep-1998, Zoltan Somogyi <zs at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> 
> Since we want full debugger functionality in the release, this diff
> is for inclusion in the release. The nominated reviewers are Fergus
> and Tyson, but I would also like feedback from Erwan.
> 
> Note that this change is not quite complete, in two respects. One, the new
> debugging chapter in the user guide is not finished; I'd like your feedback
> on what level of explanatory detail is required. Two, this change makes
> functions in the runtime called by MR_trace to refer to the library.
> We have tried to avoid such references so far, by putting the references
> into the auto-generated *_init.c files. However, we can't do this with
> the new references, because this would pull into *every* executable
> library modules that are required only if some module is execution traced.
> I'd appreciate suggestions for better solutions.

One solution is to move some of the debugger stuff out of the runtime
and into a separate library that depends on the standard library.

The basic execution tracing stuff can stay in the runtime, but the
rest can go in a libmerdebug.{a,so} library (or something).
Programs are linked against this library -- if a module is execution
traced it will reference this module, and that will pull things out of
the library.

Another solution is dynamic linking.  Ugh.  Forget I mentioned it.

--
Tyson.