Re: Debugging and the GUI Editor; Qt help needed

[Torsten]

On 28.03.2013 08:43, John W. Eaton wrote:
> I checked in a series of changes that improve the way the GUI editor
> works with Octave's debugger.  The editor will now display breakpoints
> set with the mouse or with the dbstop function, and it will place a
> pointer at the point where execution is currently stopped.  Clearing
> breakpoints with the mouse or with dbclear removes the markers from the
> editor tab.  Files are opened automatically as needed when stepping into
> functions.

Very nice!

> It's mostly working, but I've noticed a few quirks.  First, the debugger
> is not returning to parent functions properly.  I don't think this has
> anything to do with the editor, but is likely a problem that needs to be
> fixed in the debugger/evaluator.
> 
> Sometimes, clicking in the editor margin to insert a breakpoint will
> result in two markers being inserted in the margin for one click.  Then
> dbclear won't always clear all of these markers.
> 
> The cursor is often displayed at the bottom of the window.  It might be
> nice to automatically recenter.  Does someone know how to do that with
> QScintilla?  I looked, but couldn't see how to do it easily.

Changeset http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/rev/f3c93e387865
should fix this.

> When a breakpoint is set, the focus moves to the editor window.  I find
> that I forget that the focus has shifted and start typing debugging
> commands into the editor instead of the command window.  Maybe we should
> display the window but not change the focus?

The editor is not shown but gets the focus which is indeed confusing.

> If the editor widget is docked when dbstop is used to set a breakpoint,
> it remains docked and hidden.  I think this will not be very helpful for
> new users, and that it would be better to pop up the editor window so
> that the command window and the editor window are both visible.  I'm not
> sure how to do that.  Can someone with Qt expertise help with that?

If the command and editor widgets are tabbed or if the editor widget is
floating and overlapping with the main window it is not possible to have
both visible. Should the command widget keep the focus when the
breakpoint was set from the command line?

What should be done if the debugger stops at a breakpoint? I suggest to
bring the editor on top.

> It would be helpful if people could test these new features.  There is
> no need to report the problems I've listed above, but if you find other
> things that don't work correctly, let me know.  Or if you'd just like to
> say, "Wow, these new features look awesome!" that would be fine too.

I found the following issues:

The directory in octave has to be set to the one of the script opened in
the editor if the breakpoints are set in the editor. Maybe this can be
done by just setting the directory before calling dpstop.

The debugger marker (yellow arrow) is not deleted when the script is
continued.

When continuing from the editor menu (or the toolbar) the script is not
continued before I hit return at the debug> prompt. This bug already
existed before and is not related to your changes (s. bug #38319).

Torsten