The Sinclair QL Forum

Derek_Stewart wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2024 12:14 pm The point about testing and debugging, is it not better to use software debuggers to set breakpoint, and analyse variables?

Yes of course, for those who know how to.

dilwyn wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2024 1:38 pm

Derek_Stewart wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2024 12:14 pm The point about testing and debugging, is it not better to use software debuggers to set breakpoint, and analyse variables?

Yes of course, for those who know how to.

There is always that flaw, knows what we are doing.

I usually use Qmon for assembler, Masterbasic for Sbasic

By debugging I was thinking more about being able to slow down the display so, for instance, you can better see why moving graphics may or may not be interacting in the way they were programmed or checking that a complex animation is working as planned

This sort of thing could be done from a debugger, but some things are easier to spot/check visually?

Derek_Stewart wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2024 2:03 pm

dilwyn wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2024 1:38 pm

Derek_Stewart wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2024 12:14 pm The point about testing and debugging, is it not better to use software debuggers to set breakpoint, and analyse variables?

Yes of course, for those who know how to.

There is always that flaw, knows what we are doing.

I usually use Qmon for assembler, Masterbasic for Sbasic

He he, everyone knows I could quite easily get arrested with the charge of being "incompetent in charge of a computer". In charge of Qmon would probably get me the same charge. Admittedly, it's many years since I last tried QMon or JMon.

The quick, crude and completely inelegant way of setting "breakpoints" in BASIC is a STOP statement (or PAUSE and break in) then a little procedure to print out values of variables at that point when you enter the procedure's name. But why bother when, as you say, something like MasterBasic is available.

t0nyt wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2024 2:20 pm By debugging I was thinking more about being able to slow down the display so, for instance, you can better see why moving graphics may or may not be interacting in the way they were programmed or checking that a complex animation is working as planned

This sort of thing could be done from a debugger, but some things are easier to spot/check visually?

Yes, I understood what you meant - there have been times when I've wanted that facility.