clarify what else is needed

[kieras@eecs.umich.edu (kieras)]

rudolf mittelmann writes:
>What else do you need? 
>Even to find the corresponding source code is supported, via
>find-definition menu command.

The problem is not finding your source code, but interpreting the backtrace
window in terms of your source code.  E.g., your code is running and get a
break - something ambiguous, like "NIL is not a structure."  What 
expression in your code was executing when this happened?  You open the
backtrace window with compiled code, and of course, all you see is which
lisp system function was executing; if your function has any length at all,
there will be many places where the same system function was called.  You
don't get any direct clues as to what piece of *your* code was executing -
that's because its compiled, of course.  But if you run interpreted, the
contents of the backtrace window are essentially gibberish.  Even Lisp 1.5
was more helpful than this with interpreted code, and of course,
Interlisp-D was much, much better.  Currently Lucid and Allegro provide
usable backtraces of interpreted code, although they do have some confusing
stuff there, like a PROG showing up as a LET and a TAGBODY etc.  

Is this even possible to fix in MCL?  If not, ok, but please fix if it is
possible to do so!  Maybe all it takes is some kind of processing of the
contents of the backtrace window itself to remove or translate the
gibberish.
-----------------
David Kieras
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department
University of Michigan
Advanced Technology Laboratory Building
1101 Beal Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2110
Phone: (313) 763-6739; Fax: (313) 763-1260
Email: kieras@eecs.umich.edu