Talk from ESUG 2023

1. Steven Costiou Valentin Bourcier
The Pharo Debugger and
Debugging tools
Advances and Roadmap

2. •Part 1 - Advances and Roadmap
• The team and its organization
• The latest improvements
• The roadmap
•Part 2 - Demos
A two-part talk
This talk

3. Discover and understand what are the best
debugging methods for object-oriented systems so
that we can build better debugging tools in order
to facilitate debugging (faster, easier, cheaper)
Research objective

4. •Time-Traveling Debugging
•Object-Centric Debugging
•Language Support for Tool Implementation
• Modular debugging infrastructures
• Re
fl
ection techniques
• Frameworks and tools
Research topics

5. Research method
Hypotheses
Design
Build
Evaluate Controlled experiments
Automated experiments
Real-world feedback
Usable artefacts
Contribute to Pharo

6. We need a strong debugger!
Hypotheses
Design
Build
Evaluate Controlled experiments
Automated experiments
Real-world feedback
Usable artefacts
Contribute to Pharo

7. Evaluate
Hypotheses
Design
Build Usable artefacts
Contribute to Pharo
We need your help!
Controlled experiments
Automated experiments
Real-world feedback

8. •Surveys and interviews
•Empirical evaluations
• Between participants design
• Within participants design
• Data collection
•Anonymous automated data collection
• The data goes into a secure server hosted at Inria
• Once the data is in, we can’t tell it’s yours
What you should expect if you participate
Research Experiments

9. •Surveys and interviews
•Empirical evaluations
• Between participants design
• Within participants design
• Data collection
•Anonymous automated data collection
• The data goes into a secure server hosted at Inria
• Once the data is in, we can’t tell it’s yours
What you should expect if you participate
Research Experiments
?
comparison
~1 hour

10. •Surveys and interviews
•Empirical evaluations
• Between participants design
• Within participants design
• Data collection
•Anonymous automated data collection
• The data goes into a secure server hosted at Inria
• Once the data is in, we can’t tell it’s yours
What you should expect if you participate
Research Experiments
?
comparison
~2 hours

11. •Surveys and interviews
•Empirical evaluations
• Between participants design
• Within participants design
• Data collection
•Anonymous automated data collection
• The data goes into a secure server hosted at Inria
• Once the data is in, we can’t tell it’s yours
What you should expect if you participate
Research Experiments

12. •Surveys and interviews
•Empirical evaluations
• Between participants design
• Within participants design
• Data collection
•Anonymous automated data collection
• The data goes into a secure server hosted at Inria
• Once the data is in, we can’t tell it’s yours
What you should expect if you participate
Research Experiments

13. •Debugger Driven Development / XTDD
•Object-Centric Breakpoints
•Time-Traveling Object-Centric Debugging
Would you want to participate?
Next Experiments

14. The Debugging Department
Steven Costiou
Researcher
Adrien Vanègue
Engineer
Valentin Bourcier
PhD Student

15. Steven Costiou
Researcher
Adrien Vanègue
Engineer
Valentin Bourcier
PhD Student
The Debugging Department

16. •Bug
fi
xes
• 136 bug
fi
xes
• 36 issues open with « debugger » somewhere in the
issue description or discussion
• Tests!
•Infrastructure improvements
•Architectural improvements
•New tools
Improvements and new tools
Since 2020

17. Infrastructure
Before

18. Infrastructure
Now

19. Infrastructure
Now

20. Infrastructure
Now
Single entry point

21. Infrastructure
Now
Single entry point

22. Infrastructure
Now
Single entry point
Build your own
debugger

23. Infrastructure
Now
Single entry point
Build your own
debugger

24. Infrastructure
Now
Single entry point Extensible
debugging
strategies
Build your own
debugger

25. Architectural improvements

26. Architectural improvements
GUI Model Kernel

27. Architectural improvements
GUI Model Kernel

28. Architectural improvements
GUI Model Kernel

29. Architectural improvements

30. Architectural improvements

31. Architectural improvements

32. Architectural improvements

33. Architectural improvements

34. Architectural improvements

35. Architectural improvements

36. Architectural improvements

37. Custom debugging commands
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38. Custom debugging commands
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39. Custom debugging commands
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40. Custom debugging commands
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41. Custom debugging commands
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42. Custom debugging commands
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43. •More infrastructure improvements
•Emergency debugger
•Meta-Object Protocol
•UX redesign (with Thales)
•Remote debugger
•Documentation
Roadmap
Until ESUG 2024

44. DEMOS