RE: [eclipsefp-develop] Debugger - First Prototype

[Bayley, A. <Ali...@ld...>]

> From: Thiago Arrais [mailto:thi...@gm...] 
>
> 1. write a parser in Java for a functional language and 
> integrate it with the plug-in we have to this point. This 
> parser should provide the execution engine (and UI 
> components) with the info needed to trace the execution back 
> and forth (to source code)
> 
> 2. write a translator that gets a parser output and produces 
> executable code for the execution engine

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to have GHC emit Core and use
this as input to your execution engine, but then you wouldn't have the
mapping from the debugger back to the source (Core is significantly
de-sugared).

Is is necessary to write the parser in Java? Wouldn't it be better to
leverage existing work? What do you think about using GHC's Happy and Alex
definitions to *generate* a Java parser?

How would you handle calls to library functions i.e. the hierarchical
libraries?

 
> 3. write the execution engine (graph reducer), which should:
> (a) accept breakpoint definition upon execution startup and 
> during it (i.e. we are not stuck to breakpoint definition 
> before program startup
> only)
> (b) be able to interpret all programs written in the chosen language
> (c) provide an observer interface for components interested 
> on observing the execution

> 4. write the UI components for showing the execution engine 
> output (i.e. debugger UI components)


I think the system you've described is a lot like Vital:
  http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/projects/vital/index.html

They have a parser (for a subset of Haskell), and an execution engine.


Alistair.

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