[R] new, much improved version of edtdbg debugging tool

Norm Matloff matloff at cs.ucdavis.edu
Wed Dec 23 08:47:37 CET 2009


A few weeks ago, I released my package edtdbg, which integrates R's
debug() with your text editor.  At the time, I said I'd release a
version with more features in a couple of days.  Well, it's taken a
while, as I've experimented with various approaches, but I'm now releasing
the new version, introducing the new features I had in mind then and
some I've thought of since then.

The current features include:

   * Code Tracking: As one steps from line to line of code using the
     debugger, the cursor in the editor will always follow, i.e. it
     will alway be on whatever line the debugger is on.

   * Variable Display: One can enable automatic display of the current
     arguments and local variables in the R window.

   * Quick Breakpoints: One can quickly and conveniently set
     "breakpoints."

   * Toggling of Function Debugging Status:  Turn debugging on or off 
     for several functions at once.

The current version is for Vim with vim-r only.  I did write an
Emacs/ESS version, but it started to hang mysteriously, so I am
releasing the Vim/vim-r version only.

The package is downloadable at

   http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/R/edtdbg/edtdbg.zip

I'd like to thank Jakson and Duncan M. for some useful e-mail exchanges.

Now that this "digression" is done, I can get back to finishing my Rdsm
parallel R package and uploading it to CRAN.  (Not sure whether edtdbg
is appropriate for CRAN?)

Norm Matloff




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