Re: Restrict ability to alter variables in debugger on production

[Barbara Morris <bmorris@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob Kohlndorfer wrote:
> ...
> *BASIC
>     Some optimization is performed on the generated code.
>     This allows user variables to be displayed but not
>      modified while in debug mode.
> 
>  *FULL
>      Optimization which generates the most efficient code.
>      Translation time is the longest. User variables may
>      not be modified but may be displayed, although the
>      presented values may not be the current values.
> 
> Perhaps if this functionality could be put into production environments it 
> could prevent anyone from changing variable during debug.  It may be 
> impractical to get your whole production environment done at once but perhaps 
> if you do have to debug a program it should be recompiled with an 
> optimization level first.
> 

Bob, this doesn't seem to be something that's enforced by the debugger. 
I think "may be x" means "may be successfully x".  You can change
variables in the debugger even with *FULL, but the change may or may not
have an effect depending on how the code has been optimized.  I think it
would make more sense to be optimized normally, and recompile
unoptimized for debugging, if there was a risk someone might change
variables.

But debugging an optimized program is extremely frustrating.  "The
presented values of variables may not be the current values" - this
seems to be the norm.  I wouldn't try to debug optimized unless the
program only misbehaved when it was optimized.