Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com!jwhitnell From: jwhitnell@cup.portal.com (Jerry D Whitnell) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: Opinions on TMON Professional? Message-ID: <41428@cup.portal.com> Date: 19 Apr 91 04:03:51 GMT References: <1991Apr10.234244.6819@neon.Stanford.EDU> <3870@uc.msc.umn.edu> <41310@cup.portal.com> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 45 TMON Pro shipped Wens. and we got our first copy today. I didn't have a lot of time to play with it (there is alot to play with) but here are some imporessions. It is a complete rewrite, written in C++. It supports all 680x0 chips, displaying all registers and disassembling all instructions, including those for the FPU and PMMU. It supports full C expressions, intellegent dumps of memory, anchor a window an arbitrary expression (not just n(reg)), breakpoints, watchpoints (watch for a memory location to change), branch trace, individual selection of traps for heap checks, recording and discipline and works with any size and depth of monitor without changing the depth. It includes a scripting language (something like SADE), as well as dcmd and multiple user area support so it is very programable. The do-everything User Area window of TMON is gone with all the functions of it (and alot more) moved to sperate windows. The script language is used for configuring the default setup, as well as macros. You can even load text files in and look at (but not edit I think) them. Its is quite large (TMON itself is 777K on disk), and can use a lot of memory (700K, but that includes a 1280 x 1024 monitor and including all the options). You can configure everything from the size of the internal heap and stack to what definitions it includes. The windowing similar to TMON's, windows can still only change in height, not in width. There are now page up/down as well as line up/down in the scroll bars. It comes with two manuals, a tutorial and a references manual. Every window, check box, etc. has an equivalent command in the scripting language, so anything you can do from the keyboard can be done in a macro (I think, but I havn't tested this obviously). The manuals look very well done and the user interface, while more cluttered then TMON, still retains alot of the flavor as still appears to be reasonably easy to use. But there is alot more to learn then with TMON, but a lot more power as well. As far as power is concerned, it blows away both TMON 2.8.x and Macsbug and approaches or excees The Debugger in most areas. The user interface is far easier to learn then The Debugger's user interface, the manuals are 100 times better and it actually works when installed, unlike The Debugger which either wouldn't come up or would mysteriously crash my machine. My vote is definitly for TMON Pro over The Debugger. MacWherehouse says they will have it for $149.00 and expect to be shipping it April 23 (we got our first copy from ICOM direct). Jerry Whitnell SuperMac Technology