-------------------- Introduction -------------------- This is the README file for a debugger for Tcl and Tk applications. This is a release for Tcl 6.5 - 7.4 and Tk 3.2 - 4.0. This is a debugger in the traditional style. It is patterned after gdb and dbx. For example, you can give commands such as "s" to step into a procedure, "c" to continue, and "b" to set a breakpoint. ------------------- Getting the Debugger Going - The Usual Way ------------------- It is very easy to drop the debugger into existing Tcl and Tk applications - just add a call to Dbg_Init(interp) and you get a "debug" command that starts the debugger. The INSTALL file mentions other possible ways of configuring the debugger. If all this stuff seems to confusing or too much work, read the next section. ------------------- Getting the Debugger Going - The Easy Way ------------------- The absolute easiest way of installing the debugger is to just get a tool that already has it installed, such as Expect. Expect is just tclsh plus the Expect commands plus the debugger commands. (Just ignore the Expect commands.) If you want to debug Tk programs, use Expectk (this comes with Expect) which is just wish + Expect + Debugger. You can ftp Expect from ftp.cme.nist.gov as pub/expect/expect.tar.Z. -------------------- Documentation -------------------- This distribution includes the paper "A Debugger for Tcl Applications", Proceedings of the Tcl/Tk '93 Workshop, June 10-11, Berkeley, CA. This paper includes a brief tutorial for users, and a description of the C interface for Tcl application authors. A few things have changed since the paper was written but not much. See the CHANGES file for more info. A tutorial and complete description of the debugger can be found in Exploring Expect, ISBN 1-56592-090-2, published by O'Reilly. If you have access to World Wide Web, here are some related URLs: book description: http://nearnet.gnn.com/gnn/bus/ora/catalog/expect.desc.html front cover art: http://nearnet.gnn.com/gnn/bus/ora/catalog/expect.gif To order: Via email: order@ora.com Via the web: http://nearnet.gnn.com/gnn/bus/ora/ordering/index.html Via phone (Weekdays 6am-6pm PST): 800-889-8969 or 707-829-0515 Publisher's address: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 103A Morris Street Sebastopol, CA 95472 -------------------- How to Get the Documentation or the Latest Version of the Debugger -------------------- The debugger may be ftp'd as pub/expect/tcl-debug.tar.Z from ftp.cme.nist.gov. Request email delivery by mailing to "library@cme.nist.gov". The contents of the message should be (no subject line) "send pub/expect/tcl-debug.tar.Z". Once you have retrieved the system, read the INSTALL file. The paper mentioned above can be retrieved separately as: pub/expect/tcl-debug.ps.Z (Tcl/Tk '93 - Tcl/Tk Debugger) The overhead transparencies I used at the Tcl/Tk conference is also available in the same way as the paper itself. The transparencies are sketchy and not meant for personal education - however if you are familiar with the debugger and just want to give a short talk on it to your colleagues, you may find the transparencies useful. It is intended for a 15-20 minute talk. pub/expect/tcl-debug-talk.ps.Z (Tcl/Tk '93 - Tcl/Tk Debugger) All of the documents are compressed PostScript files and should be uncompressed and sent to a PostScript printer. The documents are intended for printing at 8.5"x11" and may fail on some ISO A4 printers. According to Hans Mayer , you can make it A4-able by searching for "FMVERSION" and changing the next line from: 1 1 0 0 612 792 0 1 13 FMDOCUMENT to: 1 1 0 0 594 841 0 1 13 FMDOCUMENT -------------------- Installing the Debugger -------------------- Read the INSTALL file. -------------------- Support -------------------- Although I can't promise anything in the way of support, I'd be interested to hear about your experiences using it (either good or bad). I'm also interested in hearing bug reports (please include version #) and suggestions for improvement even though I can't promise to implement them immediately. Awards, love letters, and bug reports may be sent to: Don Libes National Institute of Standards and Technology Bldg 220, Rm A-127 Gaithersburg, MD 20899 (301) 975-3535 libes@nist.gov Design and implementation of this program was paid for by U.S. tax dollars. Therefore it is public domain. However, the author and NIST would appreciate credit if this program or parts of it are used.