pdb.py - why is this debugger different from all other debuggers?

[Andreas Kostyrka]

Am Donnerstag, den 05.01.2006, 15:03 -0800 schrieb rurpy at yahoo.com:

I know this sounds like brutal, but I've been developing Python code for
a decade now, and I've almost never used pdb.py. OTOH I also use gdb
only for "bt" from a core file.

Sorry to sound harsh, I do not consider manually stepping through a
program a costeffective way of debugging. Writting asserts,
instrumentisation, automatic debuggers and tracers are usually much
better spent money.

Consider how complicated it is to apply gdb or pdb say to a CGI program,
running in an embedded chroot environment?

Actually, for many things, python -i is more then enough to test and
debug code interactivly. Consider writing a settrace function, that
catches any data and control flow you might be interested.

Andreas
> 
> I was disappointed not to see any replies to this.
> I use pdb a lot because most of my debugging needs
> are simple, and I don't need/want the overhead or
> complications of a heavy duty gui debugger.
> 
> I used ddd only little many many years ago, but
> compatibility with existing tools I think is a big plus.
> I would certainly consider using such a combination,
> and even without ddd I think being behaving similarly
> to existing tools is a "good thing".
> 
> I hope some of the other problems with it get
> addressed some day:
> - There is no way (I know of) to start a python script
>   from the command line with the debugger active;
>   I always have to modify the source to insert a
>   pdb.set_trace().  I would like something like Perl's
>   -d option.
> - Exceptions often don't stop debugger in routine
>   where they occurred; instead you are dumped
>   into a higher (lower?) stack frame and have to
>   navigate back to the frame the exception
>   occurred in.
> - It needs something like the Perl debugger's
>   X command to display full information about
>   an object (value and attributes).
> - The help command is lame giving just a list
>   of commands (which are often a single character)
>   with no hint of what they do.
> 
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