Beta 4 - Debugging with Arduino Zero - some questions

pert · March 18, 2021, 11:46pm

baspacc:
Is there any chance to filter/limit what is being displayed there?

Not that I'm aware of. The Arduino IDE 2.x's integrated debugger is this VS Code extension:

So any information you find in the documentation of that project should apply to the Arduino IDE 2.x. Please let us know if you learn anything. I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in this subject.

baspacc:
But in almost all cases the functionality of this window breaks with second run of Debugger - the value is not being updated any more. A manual update is possible, but I need to click it and press enter in the variable edit window every time I want to read current value. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

I'm not super knowledgeable on this subject, but I also ran into the exact thing you describe during the beta testing phase and it surely seemed like a bug to me, so I filed a report with the developers.

baspacc:
Also, do I understand correctly that timer (millis()) in debug mode is stopped when a breakpoint is reached?

Correct. Execution halts completely.

baspacc:
Another question - my IDE seems not to have any debugger configuration pre-set. I'm referring to the drop down menu at the top of the debug console. What I have is "No Configurations" and "Add Configuration". Some videos indicate that there should be an "Arduino" profile selected, but in my case it seems to work without it. Although occasionally it does appear there... :-/

I think it's partially related to whether you open the debugger via the button on the top bar or the one on the side bar. In addition, it's related to the state of the sketch. You can learn about that here:

github.com/arduino/arduino-ide

Comment by kittaakos to ATL-972: Moved the `./theia/launch.json` config into a temp folder.

arduino:main ← arduino:atl-972--debug-remove-theia-folder

Thank you for the review, Per. > but the "No Configurations" experience is re…ally not pleasant. It seems to me that we're trading the very minor annoyance of the `.theia` folder pollution of the sketch for a significantly worse user experience. This is a bit more complex. Let assume we keep the `.theia` folder in the sketch folder, and we perform the following steps: - Create a new sketch. A sketch will be created in the temp folder. Let's say it's under `~/temp/x`. - Compile the new sketch. The compiled output will be under another temp folder: `~/temp/arduino-sketch-y`. - Start debug. (As discussed, we keep the `.theia` folder inside the sketch folder.) A file will be created under `~/temp/x/.theia/launch.json`, and the `executable` path inside the `launch.json` will point to `~/temp/arduino-sketch-y/board:fqbn/x.ino.elf`. - Save the sketch and pick a folder somewhere, let's say `~/Documents/Arduino/x`; here, it gets tricky. We could copy `~/temp/x/.theia/launch.json` to `~/Documents/Arduino/x/.theia/launch.json`, but the `executable` entry inside the `launch.json` still points to `~/temp/arduino-sketch-y/board:fqbn/x.ino.elf`. This can be invalid, and this is the issue here, not that we keep the `./theia` folder inside the sketch folder or not. I hope this clarifies. If no, let me know.

I have also not been happy with this user experience (see my review of that pull request for details). I think there are plans to investigate improving on this situation at some point, but for now we'll have to be resigned to the rough edges on the debugger.

baspacc:
I guess a lot will become clear once documentation is released. Any ETA?

All I know is what Ubi shared here:
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=731809.msg4924623#msg4924623

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Beta 4 - Debugging with Arduino Zero - some questions

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