INSPECT app

INSPECT Debugging Application from Hume Integration Software, by Ed Hume, and a component of The Hume Datahub SDK, has the ability to interactively display and modify a running application without needing code instrumentation or application changes. The program features command entry with history, and is extremely useful for interactively testing newly written code.

Inspect is designed to surpass and replace the tkinspect application. It accommodates new Tcl/Tk features, such as

• namespaces,
• child interpreters,
• channels,
• packages, and
• command aliases

Features:

• User interface is designed for extensible and clarity.
• Stand-alone app
• Available for major operating systems

The GUI uses tabbed notebook panes to get away from the small, tiled window lists of tkinspect.

Inspect has full support for working with incr Tcl classes and objects. The application is deployed as a standalone executable so that you do not need to have the dependent packages installed, and you can modify your installed software without affecting its operation.

RJ: This application duplicates the functionality of Tkinspect - written by Sam Shen and maintained at SourceForge as part of tkcon and has also been integrated into TixApps. It's also available standalone at SDArchives site as a starkit.

AM 2004-11-12: This is a very nice tool - it exploits most or all of the introspection capabilities of Tcl. Here is one thing that I found very useful:

• I developed a in-house GUI using BWidget and some tabular design. My colleague wanted it to add a new row whenever he edited the last row's entry field. This can be done by a simple binding to the entry widget of course.
• I knew BWidget adds one or more layers of widgets, so I used this inspection tool to check the windows' hierarchy and found it without having to plow through the documentation or the BWidget code.

Another thing I found it very useful for is getting some insight in a new application. It lists all the procedures and global variables, and what is more, all the configuration options for the various widgets. Beats studying the source code in an editor!

US: Where did you find it?? Aaah, ok. Only the constraints were edited away.