[Cuis-dev] Removal of BreakpointManager

[Gerald Klix]

On 4/5/23 8:14 PM, Juan Vuletich via Cuis-dev wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> Today, during our meeting today, Gerald told about bugs in Debugger 
> context autoselection when using BreakPoints and BreakpointManager. 
> BreakpointManager is hacking CompiledMethods in a way that they no 
> longer correspond to their source code, breaking a fundamental system 
> assumption.
>
> I think that this adds unneeded complexity, and it is not worth it. 
> After all, it is just to avoid writing `self halt` or `self haltOnce`. 
> I want to completely remove BreakpointManager from Cuis, but it is 
> fair to ask first. So, is anybody depending on them? Would it cause 
> big trouble if we just remove it?
>
> Thanks,
>
I am strongly in favor of Juan's proposal.

If we really need breakpoints below the source code level,
we (maybe I) should write an instrumentation package,
that uses the abstract syntax tree to instrument code.
This way, the source positions remain correct.
On top of that package we can implement a
break point package.

I see no need to have this break point manager
functionality in the standard image.

Hint: Python has (loadable) debugger module for more than
20 years. Around two years ago they came up
with a `breakpoint` function, with the same
functionality as `self break` (just 40 years
after Smalltalk-80), because there was demand
for that feature.


Just my 0.01€,

Gerald