Tree Search Debugging / Diagnose

[FrancoisK]

Like Allard, i dump search as much search information in a (big) file as needed and wrote a small app in Python to browse the tree.
All nodes are closed by default and i can open and explore whatever branch i wish to.

[rfadden]

Like Allard, i dump search as much search information in a (big) file as needed and wrote a small app in Python to browse the tree.
All nodes are closed by default and i can open and explore whatever branch i wish to.

Excellent! I need to become fluent in Python. I have just about every good book that anyone would want on Python... I guess the idea is to use an Object Oriented language that is easy (maybe fun) to program that also happens to be well suited to reading in and scanning through text files.

I'm also thinking about writing a "Node Browser" that uses the existing code base via a "repeat search" that allows you to step around interactively and look at what's going on. What I am describing here is motivated by these replies. In other words this idea came from the guys here who are responding.

It sure is nice getting this great feedback and these great ideas. I am very glad that I asked...

[Onno Garms]

What is a good way to get started with this use of XML?

Dumping XML is straightforward. Just fprintf. The XML syntax is also easy to learn. My only source of information are XML files from several other project I came across. I never read an XML specifiaction.

You might want to experiment how you XML viewer displays the file and make your decission on the structure of the output based on that.

Also what do you recommend for an XML viewer?

I use xmlTreeNav. I don't think that it is the best but it is sufficient. Unfortunately I did not get the Linux version working, and the Windows version runs only on some of my Linux computers. I think if you run native Windows, you won't have these difficulties. It has also some undesired features like parameter "sorting". But it has the essential feature that it does not load the whole file into memory. Most other viewers do the latter.

If you find a better viewer, let me know.

[Alessandro Damiani]

What do you think of this XML editor? http://symbolclick.com/

[Zach Wegner]

I have a sort of internal debugger, though it's incomplete right now. When it's compiled in, the debugger checks at every node to see if it should break, based on some options you specify on the command line. You can then delve deeper into the tree, etc. Most of it is just theory for now, I haven't spent much time working on it since I did the basic implementation a year or so ago. But the general framework I think is very powerful, and you don't have to write a separate viewer program (though that approach does sound nice). With this technique, you can dynamically control the search and do whatever you want really.

I will probably wait to finish it until after my first release, just because I have so many other things in front in the queue.