Subject: Re: Debugging and Error Trace
From: rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock)
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:30:25 -0500
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <RcKdnXPfOei8oLXanZ2dnUVZ_qWtnZ2d@speakeasy.net>
George Neuner  <gneuner2/@/comcast.net> wrote:
+---------------
| Rainer Joswig <joswig@lisp.de> wrote:
| > George Neuner <gneuner2/@/comcast.net> wrote:
| >
| >> I've rarely found back traces useful other than to tell me what
| >> function calls led to the problem.  I've never seen a back trace that
| >> included enough information to recreate the problem so I can step
| >> through and watch.
| >
| >I don't use stepping much, but I use backtraces all the time.
| 
| Like I said, I've found backtraces rarely include enough information
| to debug a complicated problem.  They end up just pointing me in the
| right direction.
+---------------

To use backtraces most profitably [for more than just a static
announcement that there *is* a problem in some area] you need to
be in your CL's debugger where, armed with the backtrace, you
can move up and down the stack frames, examining local variables,
looking at the corresponding source files, executing little bits
of interactively designed test code, etc. 


-Rob

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Rob Warnock			<rpw3@rpw3.org>
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