Re: debugger commands

[Scott_Fahlman@SEF-PMAX.SLISP.CS.CMU.EDU]

Well, some of the other Lisps use keywords for debugger commands.  I always
find that typing the extra colons is irritating and distracting (though not
nearly as irritating as having to type things like "debug:debug-return").
I could be persuaded to go with commands like :d, but only if support for
this is overwhelming.

On the other hand, I do find it unaesthetic to mix commands like "d" in
with expressions that are being evaluated.  This is especially irritating
if you actually do want to look at some variable named D, and have to do
special stuff.  I think that the right solution is to go to a graphical
debugger interface in which the commands are all in a menu, and anything
you type out is a variable.  But that still leaves us with the question of
what is the best debugger interface for people not running under X.

In the meantime, if you are really finding q treacherous, we could add a
switch that would ask for confirmation.

-- Scott