Comments on: I’ve got something to cell you

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:10:14 +0000

@chester,
I’m not sure what you mean by “embedded” breakpoints, but you can use the db commands (dbstop, dbclear, etc) to programmatically set breakpoints

By: chester

chester — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:08:40 +0000

Hi Ken,

I’m a huge fan. Anyway, I’d like to put in another vote for breakpoints in cell mode, as well as for Matlab always returning the location of any thrown error (in cell mode and otherwise).

I also think it would be useful for Matlab to allow “embedded” breakpoints that would allow me, for example, to put a breakpoint in a function that I call from within some script.

Keep up the good work!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:09:14 +0000

@Chen, No there is not. The code in a cell may depend on the code executed previously. The easiest thing to do is to put the desired code in separate functions and call those functions from your script. If you want to still get the text of the code in a publish document, you can combine with the type, like so:

type('cell_subfun.m')
cell_subfun

Alernatively, you can parse a program file, find the cell title lines, grab a subset of code and use the eval command. I recommend against this approach.

By: Chen Brestel

Chen Brestel — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:43:03 +0000

Hi Mike,
(2009b)
Suppose I have an mfile w/ a few cells.

While the mfile isn’t viewed (in the editor),

is there a way to run a specific cell using
a keyboard shortcut,
Matlab desktop shortcuts,
command line?

Thanks,
Chen

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:47:46 +0000

Hi Patrik,

We didn’t intentionally exclude the ability to use breakpoints in cell mode — this was actually a consequence of the way cell mode was implemented. We’re working to remedy this issue.

-Ken

By: Patrik Brynolfsson

Patrik Brynolfsson — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:22:01 +0000

Another vote for breakpoints in cell mode! I’m really surprised that it’s not implemented from the start, what harm do breakpoints do? For rapid execution of part of the code when evaluating and developing this would be very useful. Knowing which line threw an error is also necessary, why did the guys at matlab not think this was needed in cell mode beats me.

By: AV_R

AV_R — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:31:59 +0000

I’m also highly interested in having breakpoints in cell mode. I use the cell mode to prototype quickly some code which typically ends up as part of some function. Hence, the ability to debug this code would be very helpful.

By: Ken

Ken — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:19:46 +0000

Thanks for the feedback Tim — we’ll certainly take it under consideration. Glad you found the post useful!

-Ken

By: Tim Smith

Tim Smith — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:46:45 +0000

Another voice for breakpoints here — this looks like it should be fantastically useful, but no breakpoint support makes this feature much less interesting as a rapid code iteration tool, particularly in the context of debugging algorithms. Thanks for a great intro post, though!

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:44:09 +0000

Fiona,

I am not sure what you mean by F5 does not work. Can you verify:

(1) That F5 is the keystroke listed next to Run xxx.m in the Debug menu? (where xxx is the name of the file you are editing).

(2) Does it fail just for one file or all files?

(3) Try creating a new script with just the following line:
disp('hello world'). Press F5.

(4) What is your computer setup? Are you using windows or a different OS? Are you at the machine running MATLAB or are you connecting over a remote connection?