http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=376737

QM has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I've noticed recently that the debugger doesn't pause on elsifs, making it confusing to follow sometimes.

For instance, given this code:

#!/your/perl/here use strict; use warnings; my $rand = rand; if ( $rand < rand ) # 1 { print "if 1: $rand\n"; } elsif ( $rand < rand ) # 2 { print "elsif 2: $rand\n"; } elsif ( $rand < rand ) # 3 { print "elsif 3: $rand\n"; } else { print "else 4: $rand\n"; }
I get the following in a debugger session:
C:\Perl\perl\perlmonks>perl -d skip_elsif.pl Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.19 Editor support available. Enter h or `h h' for help, or `perldoc perldebug' for more help. main::(skip_elsif.pl:6): my $rand = rand; DB<1> s main::(skip_elsif.pl:8): if ( $rand < rand ) # 1 main::(skip_elsif.pl:9): { DB<1> p $rand 0.63232421875 DB<2> main::(skip_elsif.pl:22): print "else 4: $rand\n"; DB<2> else 4: 0.63232421875
I'm expecting the debugger to pause on each conditional, especially as I might want to inspect some of the variables before the next evaluation. [I wouldn't mind if it paused on elses also, but I supposed that's too much to ask?]

Why does it work this way?

-QM
--
Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of