A bibliography of parallel debuggers, 1993 edition
PADD '93 Proceedings of the 1993 ACM/ONR workshop on Parallel and distributed debugging
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Structured programming techniques have provided the scientific programmer with a way to make source code structure reflect underlying design logic. Tracing tools, however, typically provide only crude mechanisms for establishing which portions of a parallel program should be monitored and what kind of information should be reported. This report describes mechanisms which improve the situation by allowing programmers to control the number and type of run-time events in a structured fashion that reflects their conceptual models of program behavior. Although the mechanisms were designed to improve tracing facilities, they also can be applied effectively to interactive debuggers. The advantages of the approach derive from its clear relationship to program structure. The model for specifying trace output matches that used for code, so it is easier for the programmer to come up with a useful trace. Since events are grouped into levels according to common needs during the program life-cycle, the number of unnecessary event records is reduced as well, making trace interpretation faster and less frustrating.