SLIME backend (was: help needed: Netbeans and/or Eclipse set-up for Kawa?)

[Helmut Eller <eller dot helmut at gmail dot com>]

* Per Bothner [2008-05-27 21:45+0200] writes:

> Note I'm talking about debugging Kawa itself, not Kawa applications.
> The latter would of course be really great!  There is some support
> for Eclipse using SchemeWay.

I'll take this opportunity to advertise my SLIME backend for Kawa a bit.
Please skip the rest of this message if you don't use Emacs.

SLIME is an Emacs mode which communicates with an external Lisp process
to implement IDE-like features like symbol-completion, an
object-inspector and a debugger.  SLIME's primary target are various
Common Lisps but since the communication runs over a tcp socket it's
possible to use any server that implements the protocol.  The Emacs-side
commands are probably only useful for a Lisp-like language, though.

SLIME's homepage is: http://www.common-lisp.net/project/slime
The Kawa server is only available in the CVS version.
At the beginning of the file  contrib/swank-kawa.scm  are some
installation instructions.

The debugger is implemented via the Java Debug Interface (JDI), but is
supposed to be used in a 'debug-on-error' fashion i.e. the debugger pops
up when an uncaught exception occurs.  The 'jump-to-source' and
'show-local-variables' commands work but breakpoint and stepping commands
aren't implemented.

Highlights of the Kawa server:

  * M-. command works (almost)
  * REPL works (no value history, though)
  * Symbol completion (based on current environment)
  * Inspector works (problems with long arrays)
  * Disassemble command works (for simple cases)
  * Interrupting endless loops works (only sometimes)

Lowlights:

  * Macro expansion commands are useless
  * Incremental compilation (C-c C-c) doesn't interact well with modules
  * Attaching the debugger slows the entire JVM down (considerably)
  * no support for multiple threads 
  * swank-kawa.scm is written in a perverse style
  * the JVM ain't a Lisp Machine (and never will be)

Helmut.