Eclipse ColdFusion debugging sucks!

[theog]

Is it just me or does the debugging feature really suck? It is so
painfully slow, and only provides a limited number of variable scopes
to view which debugging a request in Eclipse.

Like to know if people use this feature and what your experience is.

Kind of use to debugging in Java and cfdump just does not do if for me
anymore.

Theo

[Mark Mandel]

I've used it before, and not found it particularly slow, and it's given me access to any variables I liked, as long as I configured it to....

I find it's one of those tools that you generally don't need that often, but when you do, it invaluable.

Mark

--
E: mark....@gmail.com
W: www.compoundtheory.com

[charlie arehart]

Theo, I've had better experiences (with both the CF 8 debugger and
FusionDebug, for those using CF 6 or 7). I assume you're referring to the
feature built into CF 8, though. As for the limited variable scopes, that's
controllable in the Eclipse preferences page for the debugger (which may be
under coldfusion or adobe, depending on the version of the debugger and/or
Eclipse).

The docs are really paltry, admittedly. If having some more info may help,
I'll point to a few resources I've done, first on the CF 8 Debugger:

"The ColdFusion 8 Debugger Explained: Interactive Step Debugging for
CF 8" (FAQU, Volume ii Issue iii, Spring 2008)
http://www.carehart.org/articles/#2008_4

"Using the CF8 Debugger", my 25-page chapter (chapter 52) from the
"ColdFusion 8 Web Application Construction Kit Volume 2: Application
Development", available within this 500 page PDF of other online chapters:
http://www.carehart.org/articles/#2008_2

Or if you prefer to watch versus read, here's a recorded presentation:

"Interactive Step Debugging with the CF8 Debugger"
http://www.carehart.org/presentations/#cf8debug

And articles I did on FusionDebug:

"FusionDebug Explained: Interactive Step Debugging for CFML" (FAQU
Volume i Issue ii, Winter 2006)
http://www.carehart.org/articles/#2006_5

"FusionDebug Tips and Tricks" (CFDJ, Sep 2006)
http://www.carehart.org/articles/#2006_3

and a recorded presentation:

"Step through your CFML code with FusionDebug"
http://www.carehart.org/presentations/#fusiondebug


/charlie

[theog]

Yep using CF8.

Thanks for the links.

Theo

On Mar 25, 3:27 pm, "charlie arehart" <charlie_li...@carehart.org>
wrote:

[CyberAngel]

I will also add to Charlies post as well.

In most cases I have found the debugger fairly fast, there has been times
when I have noticed it can take a long time to step into and around some
pages or functions etc.

I think the links Charlie has posted will be ample to get your head around
debugging in Eclipse with CF, and when you mention about scopes. There is
also an option when you setup the RDS I think or the Project to be debugged
not sure at the moment which of the top of my head, but either one of those
will allow you to select / deselect which scopes you wish to debug with.

Hope that helps, I can't recall if that is explained anywhere or not.

[charlie arehart]

That brings to mind another tip: when stepping through code, favor using
"step over" versus "step into" when not on CF tags like CFINCLUDE, CFINVOKE,
CFMODULE, etc. For those, sure, use Step Into if you really do want to open
the file they will execute, But if you use Step Into on other tags (that
don't really call another CF template), you may find that it performs more
slowly

I discuss these and some other gotchas in the resources (some of them apply
equally to FusionDebug, while some are unique to each, as are some features
also both identical to each and unique in each.)

/charlie

-----Original Message-----
From: cfau...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cfau...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf
Of CyberAngel
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 2:05 AM
To: cfau...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [cfaussie] Re: Eclipse ColdFusion debugging sucks!

[theog]

Is it reasonable to be waiting up to a minute between stepping through
code(Stepping over)? I'm using Eclipse 3.4.2 and CF8 patched to 8.1?

On Mar 26, 12:48 am, "charlie arehart" <charlie_li...@carehart.org>
wrote:

> That brings to mind another tip: when stepping through code, favor using
> "step over" versus "step into" when not on CF tags like CFINCLUDE, CFINVOKE,
> CFMODULE, etc. For those, sure, use Step Into if you really do want to open
> the file they will execute, But if you use Step Into on other tags (that
> don't really call another CF template), you may find that it performs more
> slowly
>
> I discuss these and some other gotchas in the resources (some of them apply
> equally to FusionDebug, while some are unique to each, as are some features
> also both identical to each and unique in each.)
>
> /charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cfau...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cfau...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf
>
> Of CyberAngel
> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 2:05 AM
> To: cfau...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: [cfaussie] Re: Eclipse ColdFusiondebuggingsucks!
>
> I will also add to Charlies post as well.
>
> In most cases I have found the debugger fairly fast, there has been times
> when I have noticed it can take a long time to step into and around some
> pages or functions etc.
>

> I think the links Charlie has posted will be ample to get your head arounddebuggingin Eclipse with CF, and when you mention about scopes. There is

[theog]

Just realised the issue with speed it that fact that within some
scopes there are huge structures, just have to be careful which scopes
I choose to watch over.

Thanks for all your help,

Theo