some issues about the documentation for the debugger



Hello,

I have reviewed the documentation for the Maxima debugger
and I am hoping to fill in some spots where information
is lacking and otherwise polish it up so that it's easier
to understand how to use the debugger. I'm guessing that
will be generally useful.

Toward that end, I've identified some minor issues about
the debugger documentation and the debugger code (still 
more minor).

 - is DEBUGMODE a function or a variable? DESCRIBE(DEBUGMODE)
   says it's a variable, but the error message "try DEBUGMODE(TRUE)"
   (in merror.lisp) implies it's a function, and indeed 
   DEBUGMODE(TRUE); enables debugging without setting DEBUGMODE
   to TRUE -- either DEBUGMODE(TRUE) or DEBUGMODE:TRUE enables
   debugging; indeed after DEBUGMODE(TRUE), debugging is enabled,
   but DEBUGMODE is FALSE ! 

 - option.lisp: contains only non-commented mention of 
   $DEBUG (or $debug): "(SUBC $DEBUGGING () $TRACE $DEBUG 
   $DEBUGMODE $BREAK $BINDTEST $OPTIONSET)" Since $DEBUG is
   never referenced elsewhere, it can be struck out from 
   this list, right?

   If $DEBUG is struck from option.lisp, then we can also
   strike the node for DEBUG in Command.texi.
   
 - Debugging.texi: stuff under "Source Level Debugging"
   (do DESCRIBE(DEBUGGING)$ and choose item 1) is
   mostly about how to use the debugging through Emacs. 
   Should we describe the interface-independent stuff first, 
   then put Emacs at the end, or establish a new section for 
   it, or strike it?
   
   The stuff about M-whatever doesn't work in if you're not
   running Emacs. Emacs is not mentioned anywhere else 
   in the texinfo files (except for one commented-out line in
   maxima.texi and some stuff in None.texi).

 - mdebug.lisp: ctrl-Z characters in two format strings 
   (search for '::' to locate the ctrl-Z's); what are 
   these characters supposed to do? These are printed at 
   the start of a line showing the file name and line 
   number in the debugger. They render as less than or 
   equal signs in xterm.


Thanks for any comments you might have.

Robert Dodier

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