
Niklaus Wirth demos Lillith's Modula-2 debugger (1980) [video] - pjmlp
https://video.ethz.ch/speakers/ethistory/6d3a0bbe-71ac-4293-8beb-0efbd6a54d15.html
======
cxr
A couple years ago, I spent a little bit of my free time working on a debugger
for Project Oberon 2013:

[https://crussell.keybase.pub/junk/oberon-
debugger.png](https://crussell.keybase.pub/junk/oberon-debugger.png)

When you enter debug mode, the sidebar to control the debugger appears, and
the system shrinks to a picture-in-picture view, which can bee seen in the
lower right, while the main viewport is overtaken by a readout/log of the
executing machine instruction, optionally interleaved with the corresponding
line from the original source (if you load that module's debugging symbols).

I ended up scuttling this approach, because the graphical nature of the
debugger made progress too slow. I started over with a GDB-inspired, CLI-based
debugger shell called `rewrd`. It was my first proof-of-concept for what I've
been calling "homologous UIs", which can run equally well when invoked
directly in the terminal or when double-clicked to open (which causes it to
run in the browser).

[https://crussell.keybase.pub/junk/rewrd.png](https://crussell.keybase.pub/junk/rewrd.png)

I took the guts of `rewrd` and made a proof-of-concept for a homologous build
system derived from Peter De Wachter's Python-based build scripts that can be
used to generate a disk image suitable for use in the Oberon emulator.

Here's a demo, running once in the browser, and then the same script running
from the command-line:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUpd70Mu0Ek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUpd70Mu0Ek)

------
inetsee
Sadly, the text in the video is completely unreadable.

~~~
mhd
For an example screenshot of the Lilith debugger, have a look at this:
[http://www.ethistory.ethz.ch/rueckblicke/departemente/dinfk/...](http://www.ethistory.ethz.ch/rueckblicke/departemente/dinfk/bilder/1981_lilith-
windows_EN.jpg)

~~~
seanmcdirmid
That kind of reminds me of the old Microsoft CodeView.

------
11thEarlOfMar
Fun. I worked on the Multiscope Modula-2 dev kit and debugger in 1990. Had no
clue what I was doing, but helped with the graphics library. Download it here:

[https://winworldpc.com/product/multiscope-
debuggers/2x](https://winworldpc.com/product/multiscope-debuggers/2x)

------
marktangotango
This is great, thanks for sharing!

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iamwil
It looks like the developer tool you see in the browser. Strangely retro
futuristic.

~~~
mhd
UI debuggers haven't changed much from over the years, the Smalltalk-80
debugger looked somewhat similar, if I remember correctly. Wirth just came
back from Xerox, and that had a lasting influence on his later work.

Anyone got a screenshot of Mesa's CoPilot? Would be interesting to compare
that...

~~~
pjmlp
Some here,

[http://bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/xde/XDE_5.0_Dec86/XDE3.0-1001...](http://bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/xde/XDE_5.0_Dec86/XDE3.0-1001_XDE_Concepts_and_Principles_Nov1984.pdf)

In case you want to have a go at it,

[http://bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/xde/](http://bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/xde/)

[https://engblg.livingcomputers.org/index.php/2019/01/19/intr...](https://engblg.livingcomputers.org/index.php/2019/01/19/introducing-
darkstar-a-xerox-star-emulator/)

