View Single Post
Old 22nd March 2009, 21:23   #18  |  Link
david42
Former Technical Janitor
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 48
RFE set all PGC breakpoints

Quote:
I don't understand why setting a breakpoint on all PGCs could help you locate which PGCs are never called.
Often developers and users who know every nook and cranny of the features because they have evolved with the program since inception are perplexed at how nubies think and how they use a tool to solve their problems.

I'll see what I can do to use the responses this thread answer spawned. I have so little time to read every past posting to catch up. Perhaps a built-in help and user how-to guide (pulling together the PgcEdit wisdom into 1 place) would help those of us who have limited time to study every past posting and side document in existence (the ones I've checked out are great but scattered all over the place and time consuming to pull together).

Let me try to walk through your current responses...

Quote:
IMO, the yellow highlights in the left pane and the new option "State -> Mark played PGCs as 'Played'" are much more useful.
I tried using these. They are cleared back to white the 1st time I click on an uncalled PGC to investigate where it is called (Cntrl-G). That's why setting all BP's feels simpler and persistent.

Quote:
You don't need to break to discover if a PGC has been played.
Yet I have found that extremely useful to date, apparently my original post explanation was insufficient (my bad).

Quote:
Anyway, there are numerous ways to break at every PGC. You can turn on the "Breakpoints -> Break At All Menus" and "Breat At All Titles" options. They break at the first command of every PGC. You can also "Break at Log Output" and type "Entering" in the Break box. You can also use the "--> Next PB" button if you want to break only when the video content of a PGC is played.
If I understand your suggestion... You want me to click on 2 options then click through Next PB multiple (3-100's) times to accomplish what I suggested be a 1 click Set all PGC breakpoints options. I was trying to suggest a RFE for simplifying the amount of clicks a user needs to do to accomplish their approach to using your great program.

Quote:
The manual Pre/Post and Playback breakpoints are made to turn on a breakpoint on a specific PGC, for example to continue the trace step by step, analyse the registers at that point, or launch "Jump To PGC". IMO, forcing a manual breakpoint on every PGC doesn't make sense.
These features are excellent and powerful which is why (perhaps) I see an enhancement to expand them 1 more level.

Rhetorical questions :

1. Is setting a breakpoint at every PGC a difficult change?

2. Would it have medium to high potential to create a new bug?

3. Would it have medium to high potential to break unrelated features in PgcEdit?

4. Is it the type of change that would cause grief due to a side-effect which would cause a support (or forum threads) nightmare?

Quote:
Side note: If you use the trace to discover which PGCs are never called, you should search the random operations, and check them carefully. When a GPRM is set with the ?= (RND) operator, it's often to jump to randomly selected PGCs. So, tracing the commands containing a RND only once could not be sufficient to locate all PGCs called indirectly by that PGC. I suggest therefore to Break at All Titles and Menus, and Break at Log Output "RND". Then, every time a specific RND operator is executed, you can force a different valid value in the affected GPRM by typing it in the Watch window (don't forget to press Return to record your change!), and continue the trace, to be sure to locate all possibly played PGCs.
Ah-ha MAJOR GOOD POINT ... RND is something new to me. I'll have to watch out for those. Thanks for the heads up and info on how to check into them!

I never used the Trace-Breakpoint Button before EXCEPT to see if it had the set all breakpoints option I RFE'd. Looking at it now I see the 3 things you are writing about and will try them out. It still seems to me that 1 option selection is much easier than 3. It is at times like this that it occurs to me that built in help explanations of the various options choices would make it easier to learn PgcEdit and possible cut down the 'what does that do' chatter on the forum.

I'll check out your recommendations.
david42 is offline   Reply With Quote