[Python-Dev] pdb enhancements

[Ilya Sandler]

Hello,

I was wondering whether I should submit a formal patch for the
following pdb enhancements:

1) right now if you do "pdb script"
pdb will stop with a confusing
> <string>(1)?()

and you need to execute "s" before you get to the actual source being
debugged, this seems somewhat unexpected and inconvenient

A better way would be to go straight to the 1st line of user's code

2) right now when the script exits, the debugger exits too, taking with it
all the debugging settings (like breakpoints) this seems very inconvenient

Basically the cost of a too early exit is high (as you lose your
breakpoints) while the cost of not exiting debugger at all is minimal (you
just need to press Ctrl-D to exit when you need it)

So I would think that pdb should not exit on script's exit.
(and, say, gdb does not exit when program exits...)

Do these suggestions make sense? Is implementing them likely to break
anything else?

Thanks,

Ilya

PS. I am new on this list and can only hope that the questions are
appropriate for python-dev