The Time Travel Python Debugger
Project description
timetravelpdb
=============
Enhances the Python Debugger to add the ability to travel back in time.
Have you ever been using PDB to step through a program and suddenly
realize you wish you could jump back in time and know what a variable
used to contain?
This version of PDB adds the ability to jump back in time to the state
of your program as it was in the past. You can examine variables and
even continue execution from that point forward (though that is
dangerous because it may harm the time space continuum.)
How it works:
As you know, time is the 4th dimension. Every moment is another
universe. Pretty trippy, eh?
TTPDB simply records a pointer to the current universe before displaying
the input prompt. As you step through your program, each step records a
pointer to the past universes. The last 100 pointers are remembered. You
can jump into any of those universes. Once in those universes you can
examine variables. Heck you can do anything you want because you are
really in that universe.
Once you are done with that universe you can "pop up" back to the
universe you left thanks to our time portal technology.
Q: When I'm in another universe, can I run the code? A: Yes. However if
you modify anything outside of your python process there's a chance you
will create a hole in the time-space continuum and destroy the universe.
Q: Can I use the "record universe" function while in another universe?
A: Of course! In fact, while in those past universes do a "ulist" to see
the universes recorded so far. You'll notice that there are fewer items
on the list. That's because when you were in that moment of time, the
others hadn't been recorded yet. Stepping through the program will now
make a new branch of history. You can jump between those universes, pop
up back to where you came from, and so on. It can be a little confusing
but, heck, time travel always is.
Q: Why did you release this on April Fools Day? A: Seemed like a good
idea at the time.
Q: Is this to promote your "Time Management for System Administrators"
book? A: This one? http://everythingsysadmin.com/books.html No, not at
all. It's to promote my next book which won't be out until October 2014:
The Practice of Cloud Administration.
http://everythingsysadmin.com/2014/03/sneak-preview.html Oh, and it
certainly isn't promoting my RFC April Fools book: http://rfchumor.com/
Q: Are you really traveling back in time? A: No. Everyone knows it isn't
possible to actually travel back in time. All we have of the past is our
memories. What this does is use a feature of the Unix kernel that has
been there since the 1970s to record a snapshot of absolutely everything
about the process and jump between these memories. This feature is
greatly misunderstood by most Unix users.
| The truth is that we can't go back in time. It would be nice if we
could. But we can't.
| Instead we have our old memories and that has to be good enough. And,
to be honest, what most of us need more than the abilty to travel back
in time is the ability to let go of the past.
Changes
=========
0.1.0 (2015-04-02)
------------------
- First version of timetravelpdb that can be installed from PyPI
=============
Enhances the Python Debugger to add the ability to travel back in time.
Have you ever been using PDB to step through a program and suddenly
realize you wish you could jump back in time and know what a variable
used to contain?
This version of PDB adds the ability to jump back in time to the state
of your program as it was in the past. You can examine variables and
even continue execution from that point forward (though that is
dangerous because it may harm the time space continuum.)
How it works:
As you know, time is the 4th dimension. Every moment is another
universe. Pretty trippy, eh?
TTPDB simply records a pointer to the current universe before displaying
the input prompt. As you step through your program, each step records a
pointer to the past universes. The last 100 pointers are remembered. You
can jump into any of those universes. Once in those universes you can
examine variables. Heck you can do anything you want because you are
really in that universe.
Once you are done with that universe you can "pop up" back to the
universe you left thanks to our time portal technology.
Q: When I'm in another universe, can I run the code? A: Yes. However if
you modify anything outside of your python process there's a chance you
will create a hole in the time-space continuum and destroy the universe.
Q: Can I use the "record universe" function while in another universe?
A: Of course! In fact, while in those past universes do a "ulist" to see
the universes recorded so far. You'll notice that there are fewer items
on the list. That's because when you were in that moment of time, the
others hadn't been recorded yet. Stepping through the program will now
make a new branch of history. You can jump between those universes, pop
up back to where you came from, and so on. It can be a little confusing
but, heck, time travel always is.
Q: Why did you release this on April Fools Day? A: Seemed like a good
idea at the time.
Q: Is this to promote your "Time Management for System Administrators"
book? A: This one? http://everythingsysadmin.com/books.html No, not at
all. It's to promote my next book which won't be out until October 2014:
The Practice of Cloud Administration.
http://everythingsysadmin.com/2014/03/sneak-preview.html Oh, and it
certainly isn't promoting my RFC April Fools book: http://rfchumor.com/
Q: Are you really traveling back in time? A: No. Everyone knows it isn't
possible to actually travel back in time. All we have of the past is our
memories. What this does is use a feature of the Unix kernel that has
been there since the 1970s to record a snapshot of absolutely everything
about the process and jump between these memories. This feature is
greatly misunderstood by most Unix users.
| The truth is that we can't go back in time. It would be nice if we
could. But we can't.
| Instead we have our old memories and that has to be good enough. And,
to be honest, what most of us need more than the abilty to travel back
in time is the ability to let go of the past.
Changes
=========
0.1.0 (2015-04-02)
------------------
- First version of timetravelpdb that can be installed from PyPI
