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Is there a method to emit debug logging in a debugger such as MEKA/Emulicious?

Ideally, I'd like to be logging strings to trace the flow of execution. In MEKA, for example, I could emit a log message in the Messages window telling me when a VBLANK got triggered, and what the value at a memory address was.

These log traces wouldn't be executed by the Z80, they would just be instructions that the debugger used.

It's the opposite of what you asked for (as it consumes Z80 cycles) but there is the SDSC console specification designed for this sort of thing; it was never very popular, and for Meka only exists in a pending PR I wrote.

I thought I had remembered such a thing. Even those types of events would be useful, especially for debugging to device. How does your PR emit those strings? Does it invoke an interrupt or callback?

The Z80 code outputs strings as bytes to a special port, and the emulator prints them to the debug console. There's custom printf style formatting for stuff like registers, memory, etc. It also includes cursor and colour control characters but I didn't implement that as Meka's logger is text only.

In Emulicious you have 2 options. You can either use breakpoints and disable the suspend checkbox. In the breakpoint log you will get informed whenever a breakpoint is hit.

The other option is to use the Tracer. With a condition for Trace or Start and End you can limit the trace to what is of interest for you. You could for example put address = waitVBlank. And it will only trace whenever the address is waitVBlank.
You can set up what registers you want to trace and using Additional Expression you can also print additional information.

So could I do something like the following?

1. I want my Game Update to stop before the VBlank
2. I set a flag in memory saying "I'm in Game Update"
3. In the VBlank handler, it checks that flag and prints to the console: "Entered VBlank while still in the Game Update!"
(or, alternately, halts the game and displays that info somewhere).

SavagePencil wrote

So could I do something like the following?

1. I want my Game Update to stop before the VBlank
2. I set a flag in memory saying "I'm in Game Update"
3. In the VBlank handler, it checks that flag and prints to the console: "Entered VBlank while still in the Game Update!"
(or, alternately, halts the game and displays that info somewhere).

You can put a breakpoint at the end of your update routine and as condition write "scanline < 192".
If you only want the breakpoint to be logged but not suspend you can uncheck the Suspend checkbox.

Author	Message
SavagePencil Joined: 23 Aug 2009 Posts: 213 Location: Seattle, WA	Method to emit trace logging in MEKA/Emulicious debuggers? Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 3:56 pm
	Is there a method to emit debug logging in a debugger such as MEKA/Emulicious? Ideally, I'd like to be logging strings to trace the flow of execution. In MEKA, for example, I could emit a log message in the Messages window telling me when a VBLANK got triggered, and what the value at a memory address was. These log traces wouldn't be executed by the Z80, they would just be instructions that the debugger used.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14735 Location: London	Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 11:09 pm
	It's the opposite of what you asked for (as it consumes Z80 cycles) but there is the SDSC console specification designed for this sort of thing; it was never very popular, and for Meka only exists in a pending PR I wrote.

SavagePencil Joined: 23 Aug 2009 Posts: 213 Location: Seattle, WA	Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 3:23 pm
	I thought I had remembered such a thing. Even those types of events would be useful, especially for debugging to device. How does your PR emit those strings? Does it invoke an interrupt or callback?

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14735 Location: London	Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 3:55 pm
	The Z80 code outputs strings as bytes to a special port, and the emulator prints them to the debug console. There's custom printf style formatting for stuff like registers, memory, etc. It also includes cursor and colour control characters but I didn't implement that as Meka's logger is text only.

Calindro Joined: 14 Apr 2013 Posts: 624	Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 4:38 pm
Calindro Joined: 14 Apr 2013 Posts: 624	In Emulicious you have 2 options. You can either use breakpoints and disable the suspend checkbox. In the breakpoint log you will get informed whenever a breakpoint is hit. The other option is to use the Tracer. With a condition for Trace or Start and End you can limit the trace to what is of interest for you. You could for example put address = waitVBlank. And it will only trace whenever the address is waitVBlank. You can set up what registers you want to trace and using Additional Expression you can also print additional information.

SavagePencil Joined: 23 Aug 2009 Posts: 213 Location: Seattle, WA	Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 7:55 pm
	So could I do something like the following? 1. I want my Game Update to stop before the VBlank 2. I set a flag in memory saying "I'm in Game Update" 3. In the VBlank handler, it checks that flag and prints to the console: "Entered VBlank while still in the Game Update!" (or, alternately, halts the game and displays that info somewhere).

Calindro Joined: 14 Apr 2013 Posts: 624	Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 8:51 pm
Calindro Joined: 14 Apr 2013 Posts: 624	SavagePencil wrote So could I do something like the following? 1. I want my Game Update to stop before the VBlank 2. I set a flag in memory saying "I'm in Game Update" 3. In the VBlank handler, it checks that flag and prints to the console: "Entered VBlank while still in the Game Update!" (or, alternately, halts the game and displays that info somewhere). You can put a breakpoint at the end of your update routine and as condition write "scanline < 192". If you only want the breakpoint to be logged but not suspend you can uncheck the Suspend checkbox.

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