naim@eecs.nwu.edu (Naim Abdullah) (09/21/88)
The 4.3bsd dbx has a misfeature in that it insists on an object file name
even if the user does not wish to supply one. It aborts when
no name is given:
% dbx
dbx version 3.22 of 5/1/87 13:51 (ethyl).
Type 'help' for help.
enter object file name (default is `a.out'): <--user hits return
dbx: fatal error: can't read a.out
% exit
Dbx can be useful without any object files. For example, it has a C expression
evaluator, so sometimes I use it as an interactive "expr" that can do floating
point arithmetic in infix notation. I have to give /bin/ed as a bogus file
name, when using the 4.3bsd dbx for doing calculations.
Fortunately, the SunOS 3.5 dbx does not have this problem. Kudos to Sun for
this!
Naim Abdullah
Dept. of EECS,
Northwestern University
Internet: naim@eecs.nwu.edu
Uucp: {oddjob, chinet, att}!nucsrl!naim