debug

"Debugger words"

debug
The Portable Forth Environment provides a decompiler for
colon words and a single stepper for debugging. After
setting a breakpoint at a word saying DEBUG word.
The next time the word gets executed the single
stepper takes control.

When this happens you see the top stack items displayed in one
line. The topmost stack item is the first in line, the second and
following stack items are displayed throughout the end of line.
This line is empty if the stack is empty when the word in question
executes.

On the next line you see the first word to become executed inside
the debugged word. There is a prompt gt; to
the right of the displayed word. At this prompt you have several
options. Choose one by typing a key ([h] shows helpscreen):

[enter], [x], [k], [down]: The displayed word will be executed without single stepping.
Note that the execution of the word is slowed down a little
compared to execution outside the single stepper. This is
because the single stepper has to keep control to detect when
the word has finished.

After the actual word finished execution the resulting stack
is printed on the current line. The next line shows the next
word to become executed.

Having repeated this step several times, you can see to the
the right of every decompiled word what changes to the stack
this word caused by comparing with the stack display just
one line above.
[d], [l], [right]: Begin single step the execution of the actual word. The first
word to become executed inside the definition is displayed on
the next line. The word's display is intended by two spaces
for each nesting level.

You can single step through colon-definitions and the children
of defining words. Note that most of the words in PFE are
rewritten in C for speed, and you can not step those kernel
words.
[s], [j], [left]: Leaves the nesting level. The rest of the definition currently
being executed is run with further prompt. If you leave the
outmost level, the single stepper won't get control again.
Otherwise the debugger stops after the current word is
finished and offers the next word in the previous nesting level.
[space]: The next word to be executed is decompiled. This should help
to decide as if to single step that word.
[q]: Quits from the debugger. The execution of the debugged word is
not continued. The stacks are not cleared or changed.
[c]: Displays the profiling instruction counter.
[r]: Reset the instruction counter, to profile some code. The
debugger counts how often the inner interpreter i.e. how
many Forth-primitives are executed. Use this option to
reset the counter to 0 to measure an arbitrary part of code.