"Visually following", line by line, the execution of a program

[Andr? Roberge]

I want to "import and execute" a python program (input_test.py below)
within another program (execute_test.p y below) and "watch it" being
executed.
By watching it, I mean to display the file input_test.py in a window
(GUI) and
highlighting the line being executed.
I am *simulating* this here by printing the line being executed with
the corresponding line number and it works as expected for "simple"
programs.

The problem arises when I want to do a loop (or other similar blocks).
If I write a loop as

for i in range(2):
print i

exec() gives an EOF error, as it processes the "for" line.
I have tried to put the loop on a single physical line, something like
for i in range(2):\n print i

but this didn't work either. I really would like to be able to
follow within the loops too...
Any pointer would be greatly appreciated.

Andre Roberge

Btw, input_test.py is already processed to tag on the ";NUM = ...".
It is not the file as I would want it to appear on a window being
traced.

===== File Constants.py ====
NUM = 1

===== File input_test.py ===
from Constants import * ; NUM = 2
print "Starting within input_test"; NUM = 3
print "Within input_test, NUM =", NUM; NUM = 4
print "Done!"

===== File execute_test.py ===
import time
from Constants import *
inp = open("input_tes t.py", "r")

for line in inp.readlines() :
print "NUM =", NUM, ":",
exec(line)
time.sleep(1)

inp.close()

======= Output from the program =====
NUM = 1 : NUM = 2 : Starting within input_test
NUM = 3 : Within input_test, NUM = 3
NUM = 4 : Done!

[Alex Martelli]

Andr? Roberge <an***********@ ns.sympatico.ca > wrote:

I want to "import and execute" a python program (input_test.py below)
within another program (execute_test.p y below) and "watch it" being
executed.
By watching it, I mean to display the file input_test.py in a window
(GUI) and highlighting the line being executed.

The functionality you require is known as 'tracing'.

See section 9.2, "How it works", in the Python Library Reference, for
all details. With sys.settrace, you establish your chosen 'tracing
function', and it gets called with three arguments, frame, event, arg.
event is a string which can be 'call', 'line','return' , 'exception'.
The 'line' event is the main one you care about: from the frame object
you can find out what file and line is about to be executed. Be sure to
have the trace function return itself if it wants to keep tracing,
because for most events the trace function's return value is taken as
the new trace function to use (locally, i.e. within the function
currently being traced) for future tracing, None meaning stop tracing
(at this level of function call).
Alex

[Alexander Schliep]

al*****@yahoo.c om (Alex Martelli) writes:

Andr? Roberge <an***********@ ns.sympatico.ca > wrote:

I want to "import and execute" a python program (input_test.py below)
within another program (execute_test.p y below) and "watch it" being
executed.
By watching it, I mean to display the file input_test.py in a window
(GUI) and highlighting the line being executed.

The functionality you require is known as 'tracing'.

See section 9.2, "How it works", in the Python Library Reference, for
...

You can find an implementation in our graph algorithm visualization
software Gato (http://gato.sf.net). It should be trivial to strip out
the necessary code.

Best,
Alexander
--
Alexander Schliep sc*****@molgen. mpg.de