Debugging woes on python

[Glenn Reed]

This is just a general comment after trying my hand at some serious python
programming for the first time. Have played with it for some time but this
is the first serious thing I've done with it. (By serious I mean 650 lines
of python code written for a client).

The version of Python is the ActiveState version for Windows which included
PythonWin IDE.

Prior to that I learn't Perl and used it for sometime. What I miss with
python is the lack of a straightforward command line debugger. That is
setting breakpoints and going step, step, step thru my code and examining
variables as appropriate. While I enjoyed Python's better syntax I found
Python's debugger frustrating and basically found it unusable. I could set
breakpoints by using PythonWin but I couldn't step thru the code. The worst
thing was that I couldn't list the source code or see any visual recognition
of stepping thru source code. The debugger was Python's pdb module. Is
there anything better for python? It didn't take me this long to get
started with Perl's command line (non-GUI) debugger.

Thanks in advance
Glenn.

 

[Neil Hodgson]

Glenn Reed:

I could set
breakpoints by using PythonWin but I couldn't step thru the code.

File | Debug |Step In (F11) works for me in PythonWin build 157. You can
view variables either using the Interactive Window, or int the Watch or
Stack Windows.

Neil

 

[Anthony Baxter]

Prior to that I learn't Perl and used it for sometime. What I miss with
python is the lack of a straightforward command line debugger. That is
setting breakpoints and going step, step, step thru my code and examining
variables as appropriate. While I enjoyed Python's better syntax I found
Python's debugger frustrating and basically found it unusable. I could set
breakpoints by using PythonWin but I couldn't step thru the code. The worst
thing was that I couldn't list the source code or see any visual recognition
of stepping thru source code. The debugger was Python's pdb module. Is
there anything better for python? It didn't take me this long to get
started with Perl's command line (non-GUI) debugger.

"import pdb ; pdb.set_trace()"

See also the module docs for pdb.

 

[John Roth]

This is just a general comment after trying my hand at some serious python
programming for the first time. Have played with it for some time but this
is the first serious thing I've done with it. (By serious I mean 650 lines
of python code written for a client).

The version of Python is the ActiveState version for Windows which included
PythonWin IDE.

Prior to that I learn't Perl and used it for sometime. What I miss with
python is the lack of a straightforward command line debugger. That is
setting breakpoints and going step, step, step thru my code and examining
variables as appropriate. While I enjoyed Python's better syntax I found
Python's debugger frustrating and basically found it unusable. I could set
breakpoints by using PythonWin but I couldn't step thru the code. The worst
thing was that I couldn't list the source code or see any visual recognition
of stepping thru source code. The debugger was Python's pdb module. Is
there anything better for python? It didn't take me this long to get
started with Perl's command line (non-GUI) debugger.

I suspect that part of the reason is simply that a lot of us have gotten
bitten by the Test Driven Development bug, and found that debuggers
are simply unnecessary if we have pervasive executable programmer
tests.

The other part of the reason is that Python is largely a volunteer effort.
There's no intrinsic reason why it couldn't grow a command line
debugger, but it's something that someone is going to have to want
enough to write, debug and convince the core developers group to
include in the distribution.

If you want to start on this effort, I'd suggest looking at the
debugging interface in IDLE, since it has to deal with cross-process
issues.

John Roth

 

[Alexander Schmolck]

This is just a general comment after trying my hand at some serious python
programming for the first time. Have played with it for some time but this
is the first serious thing I've done with it. (By serious I mean 650 lines
of python code written for a client).

The version of Python is the ActiveState version for Windows which included
PythonWin IDE.

Prior to that I learn't Perl and used it for sometime. What I miss with
python is the lack of a straightforward command line debugger. That is
setting breakpoints and going step, step, step thru my code and examining
variables as appropriate. While I enjoyed Python's better syntax I found
Python's debugger frustrating and basically found it unusable. I could set
breakpoints by using PythonWin but I couldn't step thru the code. The worst
thing was that I couldn't list the source code or see any visual recognition
of stepping thru source code. The debugger was Python's pdb module. Is
there anything better for python? It didn't take me this long to get
started with Perl's command line (non-GUI) debugger.

I recommend using ipython from with emacs (and typing "@pdb on" -- then any
exception will automatically land you in the debugger -- VERY VERY handy and
pretty much my default setting when I do any software or test code
development). You can also do the same from just within ipython (you loose the
automatic tracking of corresponding source in emacs). You can also just use
'plain' python's pdb, which is a bit flakey as a standalone debugger, but
useable (see the module docs).

'as