questions from using lint

[Peter S. Shenkin]

In article <baylor.643> peter at baylor.UUCP writes:
>> One of the more traumatic things about being exposed to unix after working
>> with numerous other systems was that the stupid c compiler refused to give me
>> a nice clean listing with source, interspersed error messages, and optional
>> object code.  I'm not dumb, but trying to learn a debug a big program though
>> a 24-line window and my memory just doesn't make it...
>
>On the other hand, I found VAX/VMS 'C' a real pain after UNIX because it
>put all the error messages in this huge ugly listing instead of a brief
>list so I could find them. Of course the stupid bloody editor that didn't
>have a shell escape or any sort of facility for editing multiple files
>didn't help. 

What I'm waiting for is an interactive interpretive debugger that runs from
vi.  The program would run interpretively until an error was encountered,
then place you at the appropriate line in the source file with the error
message displayed.  Then you could go into insert mode, make the necessary
change, and resume execution.  Normally interpreted languages, like APL, 
often have such facilities.  Are there insuperable difficulties with doing 
this with a normally compiled language like C?  (I'm sure it could be done
with FORTRAN, since FORTRAN interpreters are well-known... but why have we
seen no C interpreters?)

Seems to me a few years ago some people on the net from Harvard were trying
to implement this concept or one similar to it.  Whatever happened?

Peter S. Shenkin	 Columbia Univ. Biology Dept., NY, NY  10027
{philabs,rna}!cubsvax!peters		cubsvax!peters at columbia.ARPA