[Coco] 'arc' copy command and Stack Overflow (ERROR #207)

[Stephen H. Fischer]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gene Heskett" <gheskett at wdtv.com>
To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 9:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] 'arc' copy command and Stack Overflow (ERROR #207)
...

> What we need now is a code tracer that keeps a running image of the stack 
> as it exists after every instruction so that an errant overwrite of an 
> important registers contents can be quickly spotted.Likewise for dead 
> code in the form of a label that is never called. I am sure there is some 
> of that, but identifying it is a problem on a scale that is not be 
> implementable on the coco.

Actually we are not very far away from that. We have several emulators for the CoCo. An emulator is one step away from the best method of disassembly, just follow all the branches of the code and you seperate code from data (Which is the hard part of a disassembler) and dead code is what is not code or data. SOURCER I purchased and saw how great a disassember it was using that method. But the version I purchased would not do 32 bit code which was  what I wanted to do. As I did not want to become a hacker (Bad definition) I did not buy the correct version when it came out.

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Features like what you want including a "C" Source Level Debugger was what caused me to put my CoCo's away. Turbo "C" was running on about the same power CPU at the same time as CoCo OS-9 Level - II. 

Borland's Turbo "C", "C++" (never learned C++), "Quattro Pro" and several versions of PARADOX all have debuggers at the source level. Turbo "C" includes the ASM machine debugger but who needs it when you can debug at the "C" source level.

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The ObjectPAL Debugger (Paradox) lets you interactively test and trace execution of commands in your methods.
Using the Debugger, you can

· set breakpoints so you can execute instructions up to a certain point, then stop and see what has happened
· inspect or watch variables to make sure values are being manipulated as you intended
· execute a method one line at a time (called single-stepping), or step over methods and procedures that you know are bug-free
· list, and optionally view, the methods and procedures on the call stack; that is, those called since your form started running

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But you rarely need to write any code, the PARADOX built in functions and default actions are so rich.

Thanks to a response to my request for a CoCo .dsk tool of an alpha version of a program I now am using Paradox to find hidden ROTROD. A database is so much better than my eyeballing and guessing if a .dsk might be a lost Rainbow ROTROD.    

Turbo "C" and "C++" are free and online plus an emulator has been written for W7. 


The "C" debugging tool I got from a "C" Language Magazine is pitable compared with Turbo "C".

http://www.tandycoco.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=83


How many people have looked at a Core dump of a OS-9 "C" program using the C Linker load map. I have AFTER fixing the DUMPCORE library routine.

Raw hex to look at variables. No longer interested, there is a better way. Even on the CoCo OS-9. Make the loader map machine readable by a program that also reads the core dumps and you have increased the ability to debug "C" programs on OS-9.

(A breakpoint at the end of a TURBO "C" program or abort allows you to look at all the program variables. It's been done except for OS-9 "C".)

SHF

...

> Cheers, Gene Heskett