IDLE debugger questions

[Ned Deily]

In article 
<04a3c943-5aee-4248-9cb3-60ea424108cb at j4g2000prm.googlegroups.com>,
 Roger Davis <rbd at hawaii.edu> wrote:
> Hi, I have some questions about the IDLE debugger. I am using the
> 2.6.6 bundle downloaded from python.org.
> 
> First, how do I debug a Python program that requires command-line
> args? I usually run it with a command like
> 
> % test.py arg1 arg2 arg3

One way would be to add some initialization test code to the main module 
to set sys.argv.  Another way is to call idle from the command line:

$ /usr/local/bin/idle2.6 -h

USAGE: idle  [-deins] [-t title] [file]*
       idle  [-dns] [-t title] (-c cmd | -r file) [arg]*
       idle  [-dns] [-t title] - [arg]*

  -h         print this help message and exit
  -n         run IDLE without a subprocess (see Help/IDLE Help for 
details)

The following options will override the IDLE 'settings' configuration:

  -e         open an edit window
  -i         open a shell window

The following options imply -i and will open a shell:

  -c cmd     run the command in a shell, or
  -r file    run script from file

  -d         enable the debugger
  -s         run $IDLESTARTUP or $PYTHONSTARTUP before anything else
  -t title   set title of shell window

A default edit window will be bypassed when -c, -r, or - are used.

[arg]* are passed to the command (-c) or script (-r) in sys.argv[1:].

Examples:

idle
        Open an edit window or shell depending on IDLE's configuration.

idle foo.py foobar.py
        Edit the files, also open a shell if configured to start with 
shell.

idle -est "Baz" foo.py
        Run $IDLESTARTUP or $PYTHONSTARTUP, edit foo.py, and open a shell
        window with the title "Baz".

idle -c "import sys; print sys.argv" "foo"
        Open a shell window and run the command, passing "-c" in 
sys.argv[0]
        and "foo" in sys.argv[1].

idle -d -s -r foo.py "Hello World"
        Open a shell window, run a startup script, enable the debugger, 
and
        run foo.py, passing "foo.py" in sys.argv[0] and "Hello World" in
        sys.argv[1].

echo "import sys; print sys.argv" | idle - "foobar"
        Open a shell window, run the script piped in, passing '' in 
sys.argv[0]
        and "foobar" in sys.argv[1].

> Second, some folk say you can set a breakpoint by right-clicking on
> the desired line in the source window to get a popup menu. This does
> not work for me on my MacBook (external 3-button USB mouse), it only
> adds a line-break into the source code. Any suggestions?

Right-click (control-click) menus currently don't work in IDLE on OS X.  
I hope to get that fixed eventually.

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 nad at acm.org