Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!EU.net!sun4nl!swi.psy.uva.nl!jan
From: jan@swi.psy.uva.nl (Jan Wielemaker)
Subject: Re: Want comments for visual debugging
Message-ID: <D01B1z.7Hs@swi.psy.uva.nl>
Keywords: prolog visual debugging
Organization: Social Science Informatics
References: <3bes1p$evf@dns1.NMSU.Edu>
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 15:01:10 GMT
Lines: 32

lechen@aiaia (Lei Chen) writes:


>I have interest about visual tools for prolog debugging (execution tracing,
>profiling ...), both ideas and implementations.

>I did some research upon FAQ, PRG and a few anonymous sites. It seems to me 
>that there are few prolog systems from public domain offering visual/graphic
>facility for debugging. (Am I right? Might SWI-prolog be considered as one ? )

As the author, I should say `no'.  It has a very standard 4-port
debugger that does not show actual variable names, nor locations in the
source-file.

It has a couple of hooks that allow for redefining the tracer in various
ways.  I know some people that have used these.  No full sourcelevel
trace facilities however as the hooks donot provide sufficient
information.  I'm improving this ...

>As for commercial system, I have been using Quintus, but I don't have chance 
>to try most of the rest. 

I know BIM has source-level tracer that looks a bit like xdbx/xgdb for
C/Unix.

Another source of information is (if I recall correctly) the `Transparent
Prolog Engine' work done by Mark Eisenstadt of the Open University, UK.

>I am compiling those information while collecting. Any feedback will be highly
>appreciated.

	Regards --- Jan
