Mark diekhans and karl lehenbauer are the primary developers of extended tcl. Konstan, university of minnesota and brent welch, sun microsystems laboratories. Expect was constructed using tcl, a language library designed to be embedded into applications. What debugging tools are available to a tcl programmer. I will occasionally use the phrase tcl reference material, for example, to refer to the tcl man pages. A surprisingly underappreciated unix automation tool 20161208 by robert elder in this article, i will attempt to convince you that expect is an extremely underappreciated tool for automating terminal applications in unix. If you dont already have tcl, you can download it as source from the tcl core web site or as binaries from activestate. After you have installed tcl in your preferred pathlocation. A dynamic debugger allows a developers the controlled execution of some. These quotes from your article show that you do use debuggers, in defiance of your post title. Tcl debug is a dynamically loadable extension written by don libes which provides breakpoints and single stepping of a tcl script. Critical aspects usually syntax of both expect and tcl have changed since they.
Expect is quickly becoming a part of every unix users toolbox. The information in the chapter on the debugger is still valid. Keynote address experience with tcltk and some alternatives brian kernighan, bell laboratories. The debugger will take control before the next tcl procedure if the value is. I know some will try to twist that to mean that linus doesnt use a debugger, but thats not accurate. I use gdb all the time, but i tend to use it not as a debugger, but as a disassembler on steroids that you can program. A debugger for tcl applications in proceedings of the tcltk workshop.
An uptodate description of the debugger appears in chapter 18 of exploring. Curing those uncontrollable fits of interactivity by don libes, proceedings of the summer 1990 usenix conference, anaheim, california, june 1115, 1990. A debugger for tcl applications, by don libes, proceedings of the 1993 tcltk workshop, berkeley, ca, june 1011, 1993. Take sample script or you can take this simple script which checks whether number is even or odd. Bibliographic content of software practice and experience, volume 27, 1997. The command info level we can ask the actual level number. To debug a tcl program remotely, the tcl debugger application, dbgptcldebug.
Both flavors offer the same programming interface for tcl cgi programs. The debugger is modeless, allowing users to issue tcl and application commands along with debugger commands. If you specify d1, the expect shell stops at a breakpoint as soon as dejagnu invokes it. The examples in all of the papers listed below here are archaic.
This paper describes an implementation of a debugger for tcl applications the debugger has a typical front end but with some extremely unusual commands, in part because of the features and limitations of tcl. The tclpro tool set includes a graphical debugger, a static code checker, a wrapper to generate standalone executables, a compiler that writes out tcl byte codes, and a loader that reads byte codes. A tclbased toolkit for automating interactive programs. The following is a list of praise that has been published for this book. Therefore the title is a terminalogical inexactitude.
The fifth annual tcltk workshop 1997 july 1417, 1997 boston, massachusetts, usa tuesday, july 15, 1997 opening remarks joseph a. If you can reach a tcl interpreter with sockets, then you can debug it with tclpro debugger. I actually think that expect might be the worst seo optimized piece of software ive ever heard of. Scipad is a powerful editor and graphical debugger for programs written in the scilab language. If you specify d0, dejagnu starts as usual, but you can enter the debugger by sending an interrupt. Configuring eclipse as tcltk ide technokraftis weblog. This paper describes experiences with expect and tcl over a seven year period. A debugger for tcl applications don libes, proceedings of the 1993 tcltk workshop, berkeley, ca, june 1011, 1993.
Tcl have indeed very good introspection capabilities. To enter the debugger, add the lines debug 1 to your script at the. The tclpro tools have builtin support for all bundled extensions. In more complex tcl software, it may happen that a procedure is defined twice with different body andor args, causing hardtotrack errors. For a summary of debugger commands, see the debugger command list. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. Scipad is a free software running on linux and windows. Bundled extensions several popular tcl extensionsincr tcl, incr tk, tclx, and expectare precompiled for all of the tclpro supported platforms. If youre looking at the log, be aware that tcls implementation calls gettimeofday a lot. Several popular tcl extensionsincr tcl, incr tk, tclx, and expectare precompiled for all of the tclpro supported platforms. If you dont save it, the original source is unchanged.
The debugger code has been upgraded to function with uptodate releases of tcltk i. Komodo can be used to debug tcl programs locally or remotely. The following instructions describe how to configure tcl debugging. The debugger has its own documentation that comes separately. Is there a good third party debugger which you can suggest. Don libes is the creator of expect as well as the author of this book. As with most references, the reference material does not provide a lot of background or examples. Command line frontend to the gdb debugger, which supports full d syntax from version 7. This file is installed in the tcl subdirectory of the komodo installation directory for your platform. I think most longtime tcl programmers dont feel the need for a dedicated debugger utility, because its usually sufficient to. Don libes national institute of standards and technology. Install the program or leave the source code in a directory parallel to ns2 and it will be built. Upgraded os interaction code to work with current operating system releases. Installing the tcl debugger application on a remote machine.
Don libes, of the national institute of standards and technology nist, implemented expect. Dejagnu testing framework the dejagnu implementation. Looks like tcl does not have a built in debugger like perl d. Here is an example fastcgi program that echoes the cgi environment.
Tclpro debugger allows you to debug a variety of tcl applications ranging from simple wish applications running on the same machine as the debugger to tcl interpreters embedded in other applications running on remote machines. Exploring expect by don libes, 9781565920903, available at book depository. In exploring expect, he provides a comprehensive tutorial on all of expects features, allowing you to put it immediately to work on your problems. About tclpro instrumentation debugging remote, embedded, and cgi applications. The software for expect, tcl, and related packages include online manuals often called man pages. Use it to tie together internet applications including telnet, archie, ftp, gopher, and mosaic. Thanks to john ousterhout for tcl, and scott paisley for inspiration.
A tclbased toolkit for automating interactive programs don libes. A debugger for tcl applications don libes national institute of standards and technology abstract tcl is a language speci. Most of us are a little stumped here, i think, because tcl programming mostly doesnt require structured debugging tools like that. Tcl debug l2 is a dynamically loadable extension written by don libes which. Infozips software zip, unzip, and related utilities is free and can be obtained as source code or executables from. Public domain software used in application support. Can validate xml, xsd, rng, dtd, schematron and xsl.
Tcl is easy for application programmers to use, however, up to now, there has been no generalpurpose debugger for application users. Tcl programmingdebugging wikibooks, open books for an. Using expect to automate these applications will allow you to speed. Chapter 2 of exploring expect is a tcl tutorial specifically designed for expect users. Scripts for controlling interactive programs by don libes, computing. The most current snapshots of expect will be found in the expect fossil repository. It is a mature and highly configurable editor, almost entirely written in tcltk. Gnu ddd is a graphical frontend for commandline debuggers such as gdb. The requirements nummer 1 2 4 and 5 are simple to implement with core tcl. Tclpro debugger works with the following versions of tcl. Debugging patterns and controlling output pattern debugging. Yet theres something of a lack of proper free integrated tools. You can use step into to go inside in procedure and step over is used if you dont want to debug the procedure code.
Each type of command may invoke the other, allowing debugging to be programmed. The best debugger i know of for tcl is part of activestates tcldevkit. Though the proc is executed and the result is seen in the console window. The tcl command proc itself doesnt complain if it is called with an existing name. A debugger for tcl applications in proceedings of the tcl tk workshop. Tcl has been my main language for over 15 years now. I am not able to stepinto a calling procedure, whether it is in the same tcl script or another. Cite this publication don libes at national institute of standards and technology. Open eclipse ide and follow the menu option window preferences tcl. A tcl based toolkit for automating interactive programs. For general information about using the komodo debugger, see komodo debugger functions debugger commands can be accessed from the debug menu, by shortcut keys, or from the debug toolbar. Tom tromey has extended this extension to provide filename and line number associations with statements.
Before sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal government site. Mark ulferts is the primary developer of incr widgets, with other contributions from sue yockey, john sigler, bill scott, alfredo jahn, bret schuhmacher, tako schotanus, and kris raney. Graphical frontend to the gdb debugger, which supports full d syntax from version 7. Ns supports don libs tcl debugger see its postscript documentation at. Expect is a tool for automating interactive applications. For one thing, tcls builtin trace command makes it pretty simple to add in your own breakpoints, watchpoints, do singlestep tracing, etc. See section initialization module, for more discussion of init files. It includes a description of the software distribution, where and how to send bug. Michael mclennan is the primary developer of incr tcl and incr tk. The tcl debugger supports breakpoints, single stepping, and other common debugging activities. Only the special introspection and debugflow command are written in c. See the document debugger for tcl applications by don libes. It allows you to automate telnet, ftp, passwd, rlogin, and hundreds of other applications that normally require human interaction. What linus actually said was i dont like debuggers.
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