Debugging running processes

The PDP has been part of VisualWorks since the 7.0 release, but there are still things about it that not everyone understands. In VW, prior to the PDP, it took a halt in code to jump into the debugger - now, of course, you use breakpoints or watchpoints. That's pretty well known now - but being able to debug any arbitrary process in the system isn't so well known. Here's what you do:

• From the launcher, pull down the Debug menu (or hit ctrl-y)
• Select Process Monitor
• Select a process
• Pull the Process menu, and you can debug (or inspect, or terminate, etc) the process.

It's a simple thing - but very helpful in an application that's running multiple processes (like, say, a server). I've made use of this facility in the development of BottomFeeder and the blog server.