Ya gotta love debugging, right? :)

Like many of you, I use several debugging techniques. If the program is small and not too complicated, then simple print statements usually suffice.

When code gets more complex, I lean toward the perl debugger since print statements quickly generate code bloat and become increasingly less useful as code becomes more complex. While the debugger is nice, I find that it can get a bit painful when debugging larger programs (especially ones that use complex data structures). I hate to have to "s" or "c" through the debugger to get to the point where my code fails. This is especially true if it is inside a loop that executes many, many times. Even setting watchpoints is sometimes less than useful.

Lately, I have been doing something to simulate C/C++ assert() functionality. (The thing I like about C/C++ assert() is that it only does something if the test condition you supply is true). My assert() simulation looks something like this:

use strict;
use constant DEBUG => 1;

# many lines of code here

&assert($val, $var1, $var2) if DEBUG;

# many lines of code here

sub assert() {
   my $test = shift;
   my (@vars) = @_;

   # test $test for condition
   # if test condition is true 
   # do something with @vars (usually dump them)

   print "would you like to abort: ";
   my $ans = <STDIN>;
   exit if $ans =~ m/y/i;

}

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While this seems to work for me, it also seems a bit clunky (and not very robust).

I'm curious about:
   1) ways I can enhance what I am already doing.
   2) what methods others of you are using.
   3) if there are any modules that I could use (or maybe write my own using what I have as a basis and enhancing it).

as always, your input is valued and appreciated

--david

In reply to C/C++ type assert() in Perl? by davidj

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