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date accepted updates status
May 2017
false
Was postponed after discussion
Superseded by a sequel proposal
SCP-022
superseded

Debugging Position Information

Proposer

Proposed by Lars Hupel, written by Sam Halliday, April 2017

Abstract

A major criticism of Scala is that the debugging experience is poor compared to Java. The main reason for this is because Scala's representation as JVM bytecode is not always intuitive. Although visual debuggers (Scala IDE, IntelliJ and ENSIME) are able to hide much of the demangling detail from the developer, there remains a great deal of ambiguity regarding the block of code that is executing.

Proposal

We need a way to refer to range positions when a block of code is executing, not just a line in a source file. To solve this, we propose using virtual line numbers in the debugging section of the JVM bytecode. These virtual line numbers could index a lookup to actual range positions.

For example, the following code

foo.map { f => f.toString }.filter(_.length > 10)

could produce a lookup (embedded in the .class file) similar to

1 0-3
2 8-26
3 34-48

and the closures could refer to a line number of this file, which is then parsed to recover the range position that is currently executing. It is worth noting that scala.js source maps were defined with column information in mind and produce good stack traces and stepping.

A potential encoding for this lookup is the Strata. However, the related problem of setting a breakpoint may not be addressed, making it preferable to use a custom lookup table despite the pollution to stacktraces.

The current workaround is to write each block on a separate line, which is far from ideal and does not address stepping problems in pattern matches or for comprehensions:

foo
  .map { f => f.toString }
  .filter(_.length > 10)

In addition, we need a better way of resolving which source file is being debugged. The Java Debugger Interface (JDI) provides the binary package name and source filename, but not the relative path to the source file. e.g. the JDI com/foo/Foo.scala refers to the package and source that is being debugged, but the file may well be in bar/Foo.scala and unrelated to the binary package.

The Scala team has proposed JSR-45 compliance, a standard encoding for:

  • line numbers of multiple source files within one .class file
  • path of source file

which would complete the requirements to dramatically improve the debugging experience in all visual debuggers.

Cost

No additional costs beyond Scala Center resourcing and overheads.

Timescales

A full treatment, including integration in IDEs, is estimated at 6 months for somebody familiar with the compiler code. However, should that be too much for the appetite of the advisory board, a Proof of Concept (inserting RangePosition in the strata / custom binary blob) is achievable with 2 months.