WEBVTT

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Hello everyone.

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In this sequence we're going
to quickly present the debugger,

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and the notion of breakpoints,
the different breakpoints in Pharo.

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What you'll see is that

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the system is alive
and that we can communicate,

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we have to communicate
with it and its objects.

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We don't work with source code,
we work with objects,

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which have a state,
and receive and send messages.

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Don't be afraid of using the debugger.

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We can code in debugger,
inspect the program while it's running...

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It's a powerful and really useful tool.

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I know several developers,
myself included,

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who have a tendency
to develop directly in debuggers.

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So a great deal of code
is written in debuggers rather than

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in a code browser.

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The advantage of that is,
while you're writing the code,

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you've access to the method settings,
to the objects, to the variables.

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You can see it all and test it.

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You've all the data to hand
to be able to test it

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while writing the code.

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The debugger looks like this.

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There's a title bar
indicating the error message.

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Here's the "stack", the call stack,

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that's to say the call method.
Here we can see that

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this method, "performTest"
has called the method "testSumming",

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which has called the method "place",

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which has raised the problem
"DoesNotUnderstand".

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Here we have the code
of the area that's selected here.

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What's selected here is the method
plus the DiceHandle class,

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so it appears in the lower window.

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And right at the bottom
we have different variables,

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all the variables accessible

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within the context
of the execution underway,

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in order to modify the variables,

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to inspect the objects, etc...

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It's a group of actions
in that area that allows us

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to restart the execution
of the method or dive into the code

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or see line by line what's happening.

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When a debugger opens,
closing it won't solve the problem.

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It's much easier to open the debugger,

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to look inside in detail
at what's causing the problem

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and inspect the call stack and objects,

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and fix the problem in debugger

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rather than close it and then
guess why debugger opened.

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The debugger is your best friend.

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It allows you to communicate
with all the context objects,

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whether it's the settings,
the instance variables, etc...

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To check the state of all the variables
and even modify this state.

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To send messages to check
the state of certain objects

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or check how they're reacting.

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We can, of course, modify the methods
on the call stack, saved,

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and continue with the new code
without any problem,

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all without restarting
execution from scratch.

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So if a method fails,
we correct the method,

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we restart execution of the method
and the program continues.

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One way of debugging

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that's very frequently used

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is showing things on the console.

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We can see that this is really

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a poor way of debugging,
because you have to modify

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all the methods you want traces in,
and then modify them again

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to remove them when the problem's fixed.

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And then you have to know,
or have an idea, where the problem...

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Where the problem might lie,
or where it comes from,

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to know where to put the line
and what to show.

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The other way of doing this
is using breakpoints.

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A breakpoint is a place in the code
where we'll indicate

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to Pharo that it has to stop
next time it passes this place.

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So the most simple breakpoint
is "Halt now".

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Send the message "now"
to the object "Halt", which is a class,

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which will immediately stop execution.

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From there, a debugger will open.

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We can see line by line what's happening,
the state of the program, etc...

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So, "Halt now" pauses the program...

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we can restart it,
but for now it's paused...

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and opens a debugger with
the current state of the application.

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So, "Halt now" is very good,

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unless you put it in a method
that's executed constantly,

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including by the system itself.

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You can have dozens
of debuggers opening

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if you put a "Halt now" in a place
used by an opening debugger.

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So you put "Halt now"
in the debugger's code.

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If the debugger opens,

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it will execute "Halt now" itself,

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which will open another debugger, etc,
recursively, and pause your system.

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In this case, we use "Halt once",

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which, once "Halt once" is activated,
stops once, pauses once,

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and all the subsequent passages through
"Halt once" won't pause the program.

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So we write "Halt once"
anywhere in the code,

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we activate it, once,

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we execute the program,

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a debugger opens and
"Halt once" is immediately disabled.

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Another possibility is to stop
after a number of iterations.

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We might stop after the 10th iteration

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if we know that an element
in a collection that interests us

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is in 10th position.
It's not necessarily worth

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debugging the 9
previous times for nothing,

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so we stop at the 10th iteration.

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Another possibility is to stop
when a particular condition

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is true, so for that we have "Halt if".

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"Halt if" either takes

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a symbol indicating a method,

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which has to be in the call stack
for the debugger to open,

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meaning that,
if I put "Halt if:printString"

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the Dice>>faces code has to be called

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from the printString method

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for the breakpoint

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to activate and the program to pause.

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"If" can also take a block.

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We can put any
bit of code in the block,

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if it evaluates to true,
to make the debugger stop,

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for it not to open
and the program to continue.

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Since the tests in Pharo
are methods in the call stack,

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you can put the test number,
so that a bit of code only stops

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when it's executed from a test.

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All of these methods,
"now", "once", "onCount" and "if",

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are methods in Halt class.

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You can study the code,
see what the code's done to it,

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and you can also add your own methods,

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add your own kind of breakpoint
according to your needs.

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So in the example below,

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I've coded a breakpoint,
called "between: and"

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which only stops the program

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when it's in between
"minTime" and "maxTime".

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So this program will only stop,

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the debugger will only open,
between midnight and 2am.

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You should know that
the debugger is a very powerful tool.

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There are a lot of breakpoints
already defined in the system.

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You can add as many as you like.

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To add a breakpoint,
modify one method, the debugger opens,

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and you can see line by line
what's happening.

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The breakpoints are really powerful

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and you shouldn't hesitate
to use them or the debuggers.