[comp.sys.amiga] SDB minor bugs, and 1st impressions

kim@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (03/02/88)

[ For all you do ... this line's for you ... ]

Well, the Manx 3.6a update, along with SDB showed up the other day.  Very
nice package!  And contrary to what I had been told back in October, the
library sources *were* indeed included.  I'm pleased that Manx honored what
I felt were the terms of the "Commercial" package.

I've only had a chance to work with SDB a little bit, but have found what
I think are a couple of (minor) bugs.  Since I can never seem to get the
(West Coast) support BBS to answer, I'm posting them here.  Hopefully, Jim
will see them.


  1 - I tried starting SDB on the "pi" demo program, using the -a command
      line option (start in assembly mode), stepped thru a few instructions,
      and then gave it a "z" command (change mode).  I got the "source mode
      on" message, but SDB seemed to be hung ... wouldn't respond to any
      command.  Gave it a few ^C's, which didn't *seem* to do anything, but
      as I was about to boot the machine, the SDB window closed (this was
      maybe 30 seconds after the ^C's).  Alas, the CLI where I started SDB
      from was now "hung", and wouldn't respond to any input.  Had to go
      ahead and reboot to clear the condition.

  2 - When a non-zero exit() function is executed [say, "exit(-1);" or
      "exit(10);"], the message in the display window is: "Program
      terminated normally, exit(0)."  Hmmmm ...


Neither of these are a big deal ... just thought I'd mention them.  I am
impressed with what I've seen of SDB, as well as the Demo's that were
provided ... that should be a big help to people that have never used a
SLD.

Also, many thanks for providing convenient way of changing the color usage
to suit one's own setup!  With a little playing around, I've found a couple
of pleasing and effective combinations of *my* normal colors.  Wish that I
could specify the color of the command-line cursor independently, though.
I wish *all* authors would provide a similar level of "customizeability" in
their software!  Nice job, Jim!

One other suggestion for a future release ... have the -p option (set prompt
string) apply to the windowed mode, as well as the non-windowed mode.  I've
zapped my working copy from "CMD?" to "cmd>", which I think looks better with
my color scheme.  Also, how about putting a space between the prompt, and the
actual command?

/kim



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jdh@bsu-cs.UUCP (John Hiday) (03/04/88)

In article <23532@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> kim@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) writes:
>I've only had a chance to work with SDB a little bit, but have found what
>I think are a couple of (minor) bugs.  Since I can never seem to get the
>(West Coast) support BBS to answer, I'm posting them here.  Hopefully, Jim
>will see them.

Ditto here, and the East coast board has been busy the few times I have
tried it.

The bug I found is rather trivial, but it sure confused me for a while.
The last few lines in the .doc file in the demo directory tell you how
to set up your colors in the SDBOPT evironment variable.  It is wrong.

You may say that's no big deal because the manual has the correct
incantations, but if you set SDBOPT like the .doc file says sdb will
GURU the machine when you invoke it.  After a little experimentation
it appears that any typo in SDBOPT will do it.  Clean up SDBOPT and
the problem goes away.

BTW, my impression so far is that sdb is well worth the purchase price.

-- 
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