Omniscient Debugging for C...

[Bil Lewis]

Mike, et. al.,

> Not very new...  gdb had this years and years ago now (5 years), 
> though, maybe in a more limited form.  Not sure what the current state 
> is, or if the code ever went into the main sources.  I'd ask over on 
> the gdb list.

Oh yes. There have been about a dozen related projects since 1966.
The primary distinction of the ODB is its interface and its generality.
(Details in the papers.) 

"Reversable Debugging" is the term generally used for things that
actually run backwards. The ODB doesn't do that, which is why it
can have the kind of interface it does.

But take a look it. It's set up for Java Web Start, so it's a 
single mouse-click to download & run.

> The main difference appears to be that having the compiler pick things 
> to trace would be nice.  The only problem of course would be the size 
> of the collected data when used on a real system, instead of a toy 
> system.

The obvious concern. (See discussion in papers.)

-Bil