Can pdb (Python debugger) in Emacs be as efficient as a graphical debugger outside of Emacs that uses a mouse?

[Chris Seberino]

I tend to think Emacs can do many things more efficiently with the keyboard and without a mouse.

I want to believe that is true for debugging but I'm not as sure.

I've used DDD which allows one to quickly scroll through code and set breakpoints with a mouse. Furthermore, a second window is immediately available to display output.

I'm not sure running pdb from a shell inside of Emacs can compete with that. Because pdb is command line driven it seems it will be faster.

Is this something that is NOT faster inside of Emacs and actually BENEFITS from a mouse?

cs

[Andreas Röhler]

Post by Chris Seberino
I tend to think Emacs can do many things more efficiently with the keyboard and without a mouse.
I want to believe that is true for debugging but I'm not as sure.
I've used DDD which allows one to quickly scroll through code and set breakpoints with a mouse. Furthermore, a second window is immediately available to display output.
I'm not sure running pdb from a shell inside of Emacs can compete with that. Because pdb is command line driven it seems it will be faster.
Is this something that is NOT faster inside of Emacs and actually BENEFITS from a mouse?
cs

Basically Emacs should be able to display similar info which would be available from other environments.
Remains the question if it is implemented resp. configured accordingly.

Don't see the mouse-question at stake at all here.
It might help to have some example case, some screenshot, which info you expect at which point.

Andreas

[Eli Zaretskii]

Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2015 21:53:51 -0800 (PST)
I've used DDD which allows one to quickly scroll through code and set breakpoints with a mouse. Furthermore, a second window is immediately available to display output.
I'm not sure running pdb from a shell inside of Emacs can compete with that. Because pdb is command line driven it seems it will be faster.

Did you try "M-x pdb" in Emacs already?

[Chris Seberino]

The problem is between pdb vs. DDD. The issue is between whether command line debuggers are as efficient as GUI based debuggers.

The issue really has nothing to do with Emacs except that Emacs can, as far as I know, only run pdb, the command line debugger, for Python.

So if I want to do all my computing in Emacs, I'd like to find a way to debug in Emacs that's just as fast as GUI debuggers.

I can't see that that is possible with pdb.