vim-debug

convenience layer for pyclewn to overcome some drawbacks. not to be confused with @jaredly's vim-debug, which is much more sophisticated ;)

If you don't know about vdebug, you most definitely should check it out at https://github.com/joonty/vdebug before considering this plugin!

Motivation

I tried to use pyclewn for simple python pdb debugging and I was amazed how cumbersome its usage is. Just to name a few: a breakpoint is identified by a number which you have to specify whenever you mean to edit, enable/disable or remove it. There is no way to watch variables/expressions. And breakpoints just vanish when pyclewn is restarted.

Features

Everything you can do with pyclewn, plus

Breakpoints

• single breakpoint per line
• identify breakpoint by (cursor) position
• single command to create/change/remove breakpoints
• persistence
• reuses breakpoints on debug startup
• you may save/load breakpoints to/from file
• restores breakpoints at perfectly matching lines

Watch

• add to/remove from watch (simple memory)
• print watch on demand
• persistence
• along with breakpoints

Console

Actually, it's no interactive console in the usual sense, but an insert mode keymap that submits entire lines as if written on the command line with C .... Insert mode is never closed, so you can undo everything in an instant once you are done. (reference config maps this to <c-cr>)

Demo

See demo.mkv. I only forgot to show how to remove watch expressions using the :DebugWatch command. Anyway, I hope it's not too fast :)

Getting Started

• get pyclewn
• add this plugin to your vimfiles
• you might want to check out neobundle at https://github.com/Shougo/neobundle.vim
• add reference config from .vimrc to your config
• start debugger using <leader>dr
• try every keymap once

Notes

• when pyclewn terminates on its own, you will have to call :DebugStop before calling :DebugStart again

Documentation

In order of detail

debug#dummy()

This plugin is entirely in autoload. Call this function to force load it. Until then vim won't recognize this plugin's commands.

:DebugStart ...

By default runs Pyclewn ..., initializes all variables and restores breakpoints.

:DebugStop ...

By default runs C import sys; sys.exit(1).

:DebugBp [at [file]:lineNo[:line]] [range [file]:lineNo[:line] [file]:lineNo[:line]] [temp] [if <condition>] [enable] [disable] [ignore <n>]

I think this command is self explanatory with the following exceptions:

• position of arguments don't matter
• arguments containing spaces shall be enclosed by ""
• either at or range
• if line is specified, tries to find a perfectly matching line close to lineNo
• without any arguments (except at and range)
• if at: create default breakpoint or remove existing breakpoint
• if range: remove all breakpoints in range

debug#toggleEnabled(bp)

Use this in conjunction with debug#here() or debug#there(file, lineNo).

:DebugWatch ... or :DebugWatch start [stop]

Either adds the given watch expression or removes all watch expressions between index start and index stop (included).

debug#printWatch()

Invokes watch print.

debug#save() and debug#load()

Saves/Loads breakpoints and watch to/from .vimdebug.

debug#watch(what)

Adds the given watch expression.

debug#clearWatch(start, stop)

Removes all watch expressions between index start and index stop (included).

debug#here() and debug#there(file, lineNo)

Returns the breakpoint at the cursor or specified position. Or g:debug#nobp if there is none.

debug#clearTemps()

Temporary breakpoints are deleted automatically on next break and this plugin can't figure out if they are still alive after :Ccontinue or :Creturn. Therefore temporary breakpoints are kept in memory until you decide to clear them. Once cleared, you may create new breakpoints on top of existing temporary breakpoints. If temporary breakpoints are already dead, every attempt to change them will fail.

g:debug#running

Indicates whether :DebugStart (false) or :DebugStop (true) is expected. :DebugStart won't do anything if g:debug#running and the inverse applies to :DebugStop.

breakpoint

A breakpoint is represented by a dictionary. You may write to it but beware that this could have unexpected consequences.

g:debug#bps A collection (dictionary) of breakpoints (dictionaries). Key: 'file:lineNo'.

g:debug#nobp

This is just an empty dictionary and used as invalid breakpoint. For example debug#here returns this value to indicate that there is no breakpoint.

g:debug#watch

A list of strings. You may modify this list as much as you like.

g:debug#temps

A collection of temporary breakpoints similar to g:debug#bps. See debug#clearTemps()

g:debug#opts

This dictionary may be used to change the behaviour of executing functions. If you want to, please check out the default functions at the top of autoload/debug.vim

g:debug#count

Autoincrementing id for breakpoints. read-only unless you have good reason to!

Some extra

debug#esplit(x) and debug#ejoin(items)

Suppose you want to supply arguments containing white space to some command. For instance :Command "arg with space" argwithoutspace. Then you need to split apart the arguments which is not an easy task using vim's string functions. debug#esplit does this, and it removes the quotes. debug#ejoin on the other hand wraps each item in "" when necessary and joins them together.