http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1030496


in reply to Re: Hacking Debugger bugs connected to $^D
in thread Hacking Debugger bugs connected to $^D

I'm flattered ... and I don't think I deserve this ... but thanks! :)

And many merits belong to pemungkah's help in Re^5: [perldebugger] calling perldoc from within the debugger (inifile).

Old thread I know, but understanding and patching the code of perl5db.pl takes some time. =)

Cheers Rolf

( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)

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Re^3: Hacking Debugger bugs connected to $^D
by Laurent_R (Canon) on Apr 24, 2013 at 21:34 UTC

    I looked at the Perl debugger code some months ago with the idea that I could get ideas for a vague project of mine: I had the idea of possibly trying to use Perl and the Perl debugger to try to write a basic shell script debugger (at first, this did not seem completely crazy, I was able to use Perl to write a basic code profiler for another proprietary programming language), but I quickly gave up, it is just awful and way above and beyond my level of comprehension.

      > it is just awful and way above and beyond my level of comprehension.

      Yeah it takes time! I admit that I was very frustrated at the beginning.

      This code seems to have grown out of a Perl4 predecessor, the basic structure must have been designed 15-20 years ago. It depends on some obscure perlguts.

      Mostly package vars, very long routines, nested flows, many AND-for-IF constructs, a bag of completely unknown features, wild package structures ( dumpValue lives in main!!! WTF ?)

      At least someone took the effort to re-document it with nested PODs (which OTOH doesn't facilitate refactoring at all)

      But mastering it gives a very powerful tool. And it's a key tool, we need to keep it running.

      Cheers Rolf

      ( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)

      UPDATE

      still talking about v1.30, haven't looked in the newest on yet.