Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!argosy!jay
From: jay@argosy.UUCP (Jay O'Conor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Protected-mode snake oil
Message-ID: <654@argosy.UUCP>
Date: 20 Aug 90 22:48:54 GMT
References: <1990Aug15.133346.18080@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <44005@apple.Apple.COM> <1990Aug17.213243.6075@efi.com> <1990Aug20.121633.8714@pyro.ei.dupont.com>
Sender: news@argosy.UUCP
Reply-To: jay@idiot.UUCP (Jay O'Conor)
Organization: MasPar Computer Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 44

In article <1990Aug20.121633.8714@pyro.ei.dupont.com> bell@pyro.ei.dupont.com (Mike Bell) writes:
>In article <1990Aug17.213243.6075@efi.com> tim@efi.com (Tim Maroney) writes:
>>In article <1990Aug14.200525.20562@efi.com> tim@efi.com (Tim Maroney) writes:
>>>>>I really don't like
>>>>>crashing my system hundreds of times during development.  It leads to
>>>>>disk errors, it wastes a lot of time, it sometimes loses my work
>>
>>In article <44005@apple.Apple.COM> austing@Apple.COM (Glenn L. Austin) writes:
>>>Try using Jasik's Debugger.  Yes, I know that its expensive, but according
>>>to the docs, it allows you to debug in protected mode on a PMMU-available
>>>machine.
>>
>>I've heard that it consistently crashes during demonstrations, slows
>>down execution amazingly, and has an interface only slightly more
>>friendly than MacNosy.  No thanks.
>
>
>
>
>    ....But in some circumstances, it's the only thing that works. I used
>it a lot while working on a NUBUS card driver (always a FUN experience).
>It's also the only debugger that is upgraded (with docs) every few months.
>I actually find Debugger's interface to be better than Macsbug.

Sometimes, it's the only thing that _doesn't_ work!  
Not too long ago, I had a problem in a notification manager callback routine.
I discovered that this routine is called during SystemTask or
WaitNextEvent.  Since The Debugger makes one or the other of these
calls (I don't recall which), The Debugger wouldn't debug my routine.
It considered to be running during the operation of The Debugger itself,
not during the running of the program under test.
In all fairness, this is the first (and only) time The Debugger has
failed me.  It makes short work of bugs that are extremely painful to
catch in any other debugger.  Despite it's shortcomings (price,
interface, etc), I still wouldn't be without it.







Jay O'Conor
jay@maspar.com