Re: using the debugger

[dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs)]

In article <mailman.3.1302286616.22287.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> wrote:
>> Just curious -- why do you prefer debug over edebug?
>
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>
>---
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>FWIW, the one improvement, in particular, that I wish someone would make to the
>debugger (the debugger I use) is to have an option to control what `d' does on a
>macro or special form call - or to provide another key, say `s', that does what
>I want.
>
>I, and I suspect most users, typically want to use `c' when I get to a macro
>call, because I don't care to drill down through the macro expansion - I trust
>it most of the time.  But sometimes I don't notice in time and I hit `d'
>instead.
>
>Without such an enhancement I need to pay a little more attention, to stop
>hitting `d' and hit `c' when I get to a macro call.  In particular, `dolist' and
>similar are a pain because they involve two levels of macros, for `dolist' and
>for `block'.
>
>Sure, when you catch yourself already started down the rabbit hole you can hit
>`c' and `d' a bit to recuperate, but the point is that you have to pay a little
>attention during a part of the process that should be a no-brainer (autopilot).
>
>I filed an enhancement request for this back in 2009:
>http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=3466,
>but no one ever responded.  Maybe someone on this list will feel like submitting
>a patch to improve the debugger this way. ;-)
>
>

Never used any emacs debugger -- but would a "backup" or "undo traversal step"
help?

Now, what it would do about variables you'd modified -- maybe it could
undo those too (one step at a time, backing up).

(Or might one or the other of the debuggers already have such
a feature?)

Looks to me like it'd be very helpful...

David