Android Question Rapid Debugger Q's

[canalrun]

Yes, I am still a fan of the legacy debugger. I am using B4A 7.30

Why? I believe the debugger should create code that is as absolutely close to the release version as possible without any added bells or whistles. It should allow breakpoints, variable inspection, and stop "live" at a line causing an exception - not much else.

(I had a bad debugger experience around 1985 – but that's a long story)

I am currently using the Rapid Debugger to debug an application. For the most part it works, but I have questions about a few things.

The Legacy debugger is not stopping at early breakpoints - I think that is because a service is starting.

The most serious is that the Rapid Debugger does not fully build the application each time the application is run. I guess it tries to quickly just update changes to the existing code. This becomes a problem if a file external to B4A, although important to app execution, in the Files directory, is modified. It does not seem to be included in the updated code.

Is there anyway to force a complete rebuild? I would prefer to have it rebuild every time. I really don't see the need for incremental builds. The edit/rebuild/download cycle seems more than fast enough.

My solution currently is to close and reopen B4A.

My second question concerns hovering over a variable to display the contents. Suppose I have a long string variable holding a file path. It is too long to display in the space allotted in the pop-up:

I adjust the size of the "value" column. The dialog adds a slider that covers the variable and value, but the dialog cannot be resized.

The watch window sometimes requires a lot of scrolling to find the variable of interest. Making the pop-up dialog re-sizable would solve the problem. Remembering the last pop-up dialog size would be cool.

Just a couple thoughts,
Barry.

 

[Peter Simpson]

Is there anyway to force a complete rebuild?

Either set
#DebuggerForceFullDeployment: True
Rapid debugger will deploy the full project on every compilation.

or you can use
CTRL+P followed by F5

With your second issue, you could always use the watch expression. But saying that, I'm more than sure that in B4A 8+ you can make the Name/Value (actually the whole popup box) larger thus you can extend and actually see the whole value...

 

[canalrun]

Is there anyway to force a complete rebuild?
Either set

#DebuggerForceFullDeployment: True
Rapid debugger will the full project on every compilation

Thanks. That's a nice simple solution and would work well.

I assume I would add that line to the "Project Attributes"

Barry.

 

[Peter Simpson]

I assume I would add that line to the "Project Attributes"

Yes in the main activity...

 

[Erel]

1. I recommend you to upgrade to B4A v8.30. There were several important improvements in the debugger.
2. Once you upgrade you should never use the legacy debugger.
3. As Peter wrote you can disable the quick deployments feature, though there is no reason to do it.

 

[canalrun]

3. As Peter wrote you can disable the quick deployments feature, though there is no reason to do it.

Yup, Peter's suggestion did the trick:

#DebuggerForceFullDeployment: True

Added to the Project Attributes.

My app includes a text file in the Assets directory. This text file can be modified from an outside source and written to the project's Files directory. If I'm in a debug session and the file is modified, upon the next run, the modified text file is not downloaded to the Assets directory on the device unless I perform a full build.

This is where I would need the capability to force a "full" build. Peter's solution works, and the edit/rebuild/download cycle is fast enough so that always doing a full build is acceptable.

Barry.

 

[Erel]

and the file is modified, upon the next run, the modified text file is not downloaded to the Assets directory on the device unless I perform a full build.

It should be updated automatically based on the file modified date.