in reply to RFC: Data::Dumper::Simple
I've become a great fan of Devel::StealthDebug (except the name).
use Devel::StealthDebug; ... #!dump( $var, \@foo, \%bas )! ... #!watch( $volatile )! ## Only traced when it changes. ... ----outputs---- $ $var = 7; $\@foo = [ 123, 456, ]; $\%bas = { 'a' => 1, 'b' => 2, }; in Test::new at Test.pm line 31
Comment out the use line and all the tracing disappears. It can also be enabled/disabled by use line parameter, environment variable or presence/absence of a filename.
No run-time intrusions at all when disabled, but easily re-enabled. Watches are especially useful for cutting down the volumes of trace, though can be a little temperamental. That's only scratched the surface of it's capabilities; it also has #!assert( condition ), #!when( varname, op, value )! and #!emit("sometext")! pragmas.
It's dump() format is preferrable to most of the dumpers-that-wannabe-serializers I've tried, and it doesn't exact the huge memory overhead that serialisers require for circular reference detection when dumping complex structures.
It's also filter-based, but like you, I don't have a problem with that for debugging purposes.