Re: CGI debugging environment

"Roman M . Parparov" wrote:
> 
> I was looking for some solution to improve debugging of CGI scripts.
> 
> A couple of people pointed my attention to ptkdb. So, a couple of
> remarks:
> 
> * The debugger is very good and should be made a recommended part of
> any installed package, at least on X systems.
> 
> * Still a better simulation of WWW space is desired, maybe even with
> an HTML syntax checker integrated.

While you can fake WWW space to some extent, it becomes harder for
multi-part forms and virtually impossible for Apache and mod_perl.

Having said that, writing a test driver for CGI scripts that verifies
the output is HTML-compliant is a simple matter.  This would allow you
to automatically run a number of verification tests.

Now, personally, I am not a fan of debuggers - I'd rather depend on pre
and post conditions, assertions, and the like, backed up by a number of
automatically run test cases.  So take my comments with a grain of salt.

Hildo