[Chicago-announce] UniForum: Perl Debugger

[vosede at lidp.com]

Hope you can join us.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Confessions of a ytpist.
                                  or 
                 A short summary of the Perl Debugger.
                                   
                            Steven Lembark
                 Tuesday, April 13, 2004, 7:00-9:00pm
                College of DuPage, Bldg OCC, Room 128B

Abstract
--------
The perl debugger is a beautiful thing to behold.  From afar.

Up close it is quite functional and useful, but looks enough like gdb to
scare most people away.  Which is too bad, because its syntax is rather
well adapted to dealing with the realities of programming in Perl.

Notwithstanding a recent O'Reilly pocketbook guide, the debugging
documentation is a bit sketchy -- limited to the Camel and Nutcase book's
syntax chapters.

The debugger is also a handy tool for testing Perl syntax and profiling
your code.  Being written in Perl, you can use it from within your programs
(this is where the $DB::single = 1 lines in modules come from).  Setting
programatic breakpoints or switching tracing within your code lets Perl
do the work.  Letting your code debug itself is the height of lazyness --
and good coding.

Also, the "ptkdb" module now offers a GUI experience for those who don't
enjoy wallowing in mud... er, the command line.

The talk will give a short introduction to dealing with the debugger,
debugging with $DB::single, installing and using ptkdb and the Profiler.

Speaker Bio
-----------
Steve Lembark is a Systems Architect and Perl hacker.  On occasion he
has been known to type something correctly, at which point the debugger
is still useful.

Getting There
-------------
The next meeting of the UniForum Chicago Perl Special interest
group will be from 7:00 pm to 9:00 PM on Tuesday, April 13, 2004
at the College of DuPage.  The address of the meeting facility is:

        College of DuPage
        Building OCC, Rm 128B
        Fawell Boulevard and Lambert Rd.
        Glen Ellyn, IL 60137-6599
 
Take 355 to Butterfield Rd (Rt 56).  Butterfield West to Lambert Rd.
Lambert Rd North to Fawell Boulevard (formerly 22nd St.).  West on
Fawell Boulevard to Lot 9 or 10 entrance.  South into lot 9 or 10.
Park in lot 9 or 10 and walk to the OCC (Open Campus Center) building.
The meeting room is 128B which is towards the west end of the building.

All UniForum Chicago Perl SIG meetings are open to the public free of charge.

For additional information contact Deborah Vose at (630)829-7033 or visit
the UniForum Chicago web site at:
	http://www.uniforum.chi.il.us/


-- 
Deborah Vose
LIDP Consulting, Inc.
Phone: 1 630 829 7033
e-mail: vosede at lidp.com