Karlis wrote:'Debugger Error Code[:5] command is not available' can happen when you run a script without any breakpoints set.
(said in reply to someone else in the xdebug forum)
The problem is that there is not a distinction between activating debugger mode and running the program. Much of the time when I am debugging a program, I want to single-step into it. But by default, clicking the run button just goes.... zoom.
Most of the time, what I want is for it to break on the first line of code and then from there I can single step. It is tedious to always to to keep putting in the break-points.
Suggestions:
1) Enable the Step-Into button even when the debugger is not running. This would then have the effect of setting a break-point at the first line and then running the program.
2) Enable saving of break-points (per-file / per-project) so that they can be easily recreated when debugging complex apps multiple times. Possibly with auto-reload of the break points when a file is closed and then opened again. This would also need to have a Clear break-points per-file and per-project/all.
berdman wrote:Just how does one "Enable the Step-Into button even when the debugger is not running"?
This is how Visual Studio behaves. If the debugger is not currently active and you perform a "Step into" command, the IDE starts the debugger with a break on main() or whatever is the first appropriate line for the particular language. I'm not sure how many other IDEs do similar, but it's something you can quickly get used to.
It might be a pain for Karlis to implement (I'm honestly not sure), but it would be a nice little touch.
I've given up on using Blumentals debugger, it just has way too many issues, such as dying right in the middle of a debug session... and not being able to talk to a web server on another computer but only on the local computer (file path issue). and not being able to debug multiple sessions at the same time (client server app with client and server talking to each other) and not being able to debug a CLI program except by pretending it's a web page, which is clumsy and sometimes does not work.
I am now using the Eclipse PDT debugger and it works great. It does almost everything I need from a debugger.
The one thing that Eclipse does not do, but which Blumentals debugger does do, is that with Eclipse if you hover the mouse over a variable, if that variable is an array Eclipse does not show you what the array is, you must then go poke around in another window to find the value, and the navigation is clumsy requiring much scrolling and clicking. Blumentals is better because you just hover the mouse and regardless of what the variable is, Blumentals tries to show you the content of it.
On the other hand, if the variable happens to be a complex object, then when I hover the mouse over it, Blumentals debug session crashes. Whereas in Eclipse it is able to show me the contents of even complex nested objects with recursive references, provided that I go through the hassle of getting to it through the debug vars window.
My reason for saying this is my hope that Blumentals will take a look at the Eclipse debugger and get some ideas for how their debugger ought to work.
Blumentals Editor is vastly superior to Eclipse and I shall continue to use it for editing. However, it is a nuisance to have to switch back and forth between the Blumentals Editor and the Eclipse Debugger. It was also very complex to get Eclipse installed and configured.
I have tried all of the major and some of the lessor known PHP editor/debuggers out there. And I have been very disappointed and surprised with how poorly debuggers for PHP actually work. So far the Eclipse debugger is the only one that actually provides all of the functionality that I need/expect from a debugger. And there is plenty of room for improvement in how the Eclipse debugger is configured and in how you get to see a variable's value.
As far as PHP editors, the competition is intense and it's a bit of a toss up, but for me personally, I found that Blumentals Editor delivers more usable functionality per dollar than any of the others. The editor is not perfect, none of them are, but in general I am very pleased with it and my productivity has certainly gone up since I started using it.
The one feature, more than any other, that I would like to see added to Blumentals Editor is a code obfusticator/compiler for PHP -- similar to other products on the market.
I would also very much like to see Blumentals add a JavaScript debugger. There are several on the market but I have not seen anything that I like yet.
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My qualifications for saying the above is that I have spent an absurd amount of time trying out the many different debuggers/editors that are available for PHP. I have been writing PHP programs (cli and web apps) for several years now, and have written something in the realm of 50 to 100 thousand lines of PHP code. Most of that time I was using a simple text editor and no debugger. However my current project has gotten too big and too complex for me to manage it without some good tools, especially a good debugger.
I have previously done programming in other languages, many of which offer outstanding debuggers and editors. I conjecture that one of the things really holding PHP back from wider adoption is the lack of good development tools. The things that we take for granted in other languages are only recently becoming available for PHP and there is still a huge amount of room for improvement.