Re: Developer 2000 vs Delphi

Shay Shmelzer <shmelzer_at_johnbryce.co.il> writes:  

>I don't know what u r all talking about there is a debuger in oracle
>forms that lets u go over procedures step by step set breaks examine
>variables do selects and much more .
>what seems to be the problem then ?
>u don't have to use messages for debug .
 

I never said Oracle Forms had NO debugger; I said it had a very INFERIOR debugger.  

Even though the features you mention exist, they are very cumbersome to set up, slow a modern Pentium CPU to a crawl, and are rarely worth the effort. I only use the Forms debugger in rare cases when I need to examine the call stack to see why a given procedure is being called.  

In Borland Delphi and in Microsoft Access and Visual Basic, you set a breakpoint from the designer's edit window by pressing a function key.The line lights up a different color. Then when you run the program, which is a much faster cycle in all these tools vs. Forms, there is no observable speed penalty for having the debugger active. Line by line code stepping is very responsive.  

In contrast, when you run an Oracle Forms module with the debugger, you must wait for an incredibly long startup time, with flashing dialog message boxes, etc. before you even get the debugger dialog. Only THEN can you set your breakpoints, AFTER you first locate the source code you were just editing! The code stepping causes lots of screen flashing, and is generally awkward.  

In summary, our project team views the Forms debugger as a "last resort" diagnostic tool.  

The Borland and Microsoft products have debuggers that qualify as "vacation resort" tools -- they are fun "places to be".    

As always, with Oracle Forms, do NOT just judge by the "feature sheet" or marketing brochure. Actually do side-by-side pilot development with one or more of the other tools.  

• Rick --

(Rick Rutt is a system architect living and working in Midland, Michigan.) Received on Fri Jul 26 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST