[ADMB Users] ADMB-IDE debugger issue

[Arni Magnusson]

Hi Mike,

Like Dave pointed out, the error message is from Emacs, as it fails to
work properly with GDB. The good news is that I don't think this is a
common problem, as I've never seen it before.

I'm not able to reproduce your problem with simple.tpl, using ADMB-IDE in
Windows nor Linux. You can also debug using the shell, like this:

$ cd simple
$ admb -s simple
$ simple
$ gdb simple

I'm guessing that your ADMB-IDE has no problems debugging simple.tpl, but
produces the error when dealing with some other model.tpl. You should
follow Dave's hint and see what happens if you run GDB on the executable
outside Emacs. I've used four different ways to work with GDB:

(1) Shell, just type 'gdb mymodel' to avoid any middle men
(2) DDD, graphical interface
(3) KDBG, similar to DDD but a little smoother
(4) Emacs 'M-x gdb', like the shell but with mouse support

I find them all workable, but none of them great. In the ADMB-IDE manual,
I describe GDB as a last resort for stubborn bugs. I prefer the Emacs
interface where I can (1) left-click to add/remove breakpoints and
right-click to continue until here, (2) paste commands from a previous
session, (3) show object type, and (4) have the same interface in Windows
and Linux.

Do tell us what you find out, Mike. You may end up submitting a bug report
to the Emacs or GDB maintainers. At the core of this is a philosophical
issue: can a debugger debug itself?

Cheers,

Arni



On fös, ágúst 28, 2009 2:54 pm, Mike Errigo wrote:

> Hello all.  I have recently downloaded the new ADMB-IDE and its great.
> Thank you very much to Arni Magnusson for developing it and writing the
> manual.  I have been trying to use the GNU debugger with emacs to debug my
> admb code.  I build the code with "safe" compile to add the debugging
> symbols and it compiles just fine.  I then start up gdb, but I get the
> errors:
>
> error in process filter: gdb-source-info: Wrong type argument: stringp,
> nil
> error in process filter: Wrong type argument: stringp, nil
>
> Then the debugger doesn't seem to work. I can't input breakpoints, step
> through the model, or even run it from the debugger.  I am new to the GNU
> emacs environment and perhaps my mistake is trivial, but can someone help
> me wit this problem?  Thanks.
>
> Dr. Michael Errigo
>