john@trigraph.UUCP (John Chew) (10/12/88)
While browsing through the built-in documentation in MacsBug version
6.0 B1, I noticed that there is a DSC command which "Turns Discipline
on or off. Toggle if no parameter. Any parameters other than ON or
OFF are passed to Discipline for interpretation. Discipline examines
parameters before trap calls and examines results after trap calls.
Any errors break into MacsBug."
Well, I thought. This is very nice. I don't have to learn TMON,
since all I wanted was trap discipline.
However, all I get from the DSC command is the message "Discipline
is not installed".
Can someone tell me if in fact a Discipline module for MacsBug exists,
and if so, how to get a copy of it?
Thanks.
John Chew
--
john j. chew, iii poslfit@utorgpu.bitnet
trigraph, inc. poslfit@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu
toronto, canada {uunet!mnetor!utzoo,utgpu,utcsri}!trigraph!john
[it is my opinion that these are solely my opinions.]tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (10/14/88)
That's a hook for a new developer tool called Extended Discipline, described
on page 73 of this month's Macworld. It is due out by the end of the year.
There are two other tools due at the same time called RAMdump and ReAnimator.
RAMdump does the equivalent of a UNIX core dump, to assist in crash post-
mortems. ReAnimator supposedly "re-creates the crash with the RAMdump
information. It lets a programmer see exactly what was going on in the Mac
when the program crashed. For example, instead of asking a beta tester for
a list of INITs in the system, a developer can get the information from
ReAnimator." My guess is it doesn't really recreate the crash, just lets
you interpret some of the postmortem information.
I'm looking forward (as always) to Discipline, but I'm not so sure about
the supposed beta test usefulness of RAMdump and ReAnimator. In my experience,
few beta testers are willing to do *anything* beyond scribble a few cryptic
notes about the problem. If you require them to do a RAMdump and send in
a couple of floppies, they probably will just not do anything but bitch to
their friends about the problem. If you don't require it, they'll think
almost every time, "This is an easy one; no need to go through all that for
this bug." For direct developer use, it might be a little useful, and for
in-house quality assurance (aka alpha testing) by paid testers, it would
probably be very useful, but not for most beta testing.
What I'd really like to see is an event logger for in-house testers to run
all the time. Unstructured tests are very important, because only they
approximate to real use conditions; unfortunately, it's awfully hard for a
tester to tell you everything they did in the fifteen minutes before the
crash.
There's also a research project in Apple called Player Piano, which from the
description is a MacroMaker that requires two Macs. As described in Macworld,
it's a silly idea, but I assume the usual technically incompetent trade press
journalism is to blame. If it didn't have something more, it would not even
be under development.
--
Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim
"Our newest idol, the Superman, celebrating the death of godhead, may be
younger than the hills; but he is as old as the shepherds."
- Shaw, "On Diabolonian Ethics"jordan@Apple.COM (Jordan Mattson) (10/14/88)
Dear John - Extended Discipline is currently under development by Apple Computer. It uses a debugger interface that is defined by Apple in consultation with Icom Simulations, Jasik Designs, and Think Technologies. When completed, you will be able to use Extended Discipline with each of these debuggers. We plan to complete and ship Extended Discipline in the first quarter of 1989 (January to March, so it is calendar year not fiscal year). Jordan Mattson UUCP: jordan@apple.apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. CSNET: jordan@apple.CSNET Tools & Languages Product Management 20525 Mariani Avenue, MS 27S Cupertino, CA 95014 408-973-4601 "Joy is the serious business of heaven." C.S. Lewis