Xref: utzoo comp.lang.eiffel:1430 comp.lang.objective-c:177
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!spool.mu.edu!samsung!noose.ecn.purdue.edu!haley.ecn.purdue.edu!giacomet
From: giacomet@haley.ecn.purdue.edu (Frederic Giacometti)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.objective-c
Subject: Re: Whose debugger is better, Eiffel or Objective C?
Message-ID: <1991Feb26.155726.9531@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: 26 Feb 91 15:57:26 GMT
References: <1991Feb26.045704.11186@ecst.csuchico.edu>
Sender: root@noose.ecn.purdue.edu (ECN System Management)
Organization: Pantagruel
Lines: 35

In article <1991Feb26.045704.11186@ecst.csuchico.edu> brianm@ecst.csuchico.edu (Brian Meyerpeter) writes:
>
>
>I am currently doing some research on debugging systems for object oriented 
>environments.  I have just finished looking at the Eiffel docs and what they
>call a debugger.  I called ISE and asked, "Does Eiffel have a debugger?"
>They said of course.  After my studies and $200 for the docs I would beg to
>differ.  They have a class viewer that really doesn't do much.
>
>I would like to hear someone's experience with view in Eiffel.  Do you
>really use it?  Would you have liked something better?
>
>
>The only information I have with objective c is on the next.  It uses
>an enhanced version of gnu's gdb.  I like gdb but it isn't designed for
>oo programing.  Have they done better since?
>
>Which is better??


 I've worked and debugged programs both in Objective-C (on NeXT) and Eiffel
on Sun-Sparc. I'd say that most of the traditionally painful bugs occuring
in objective-C (programmer's distraction, type mismatch, screwed-up indices
etc...) are pointed out by the Eiffel system at compilation time (thourough
compilation analysis) or run-time (assertion control). I haven't
really used the viewer which, I believe, is in a primitive stage;
all my debuging is done with assertion monitoring. Sometimes, I've
used the trace capability but that's it. I'd believe the assertion
by Eiffel's authors that traditional debuggers are somehow obsolete
in Eiffel to be relevant, if not true. I must also say that, unlike 
my experience with Objective-C or C, the debugging stage with Eiffel
has been much limited.

--
  giacomet@ecn.purdue.edu