Gotchas with Tracing

Tracing Doesn't Take Effect Immediately

When you turn tracing on, trace output does not occur immediately, but rather takes a few seconds. This means that you need to turn tracing on well in advance of the code you are interested in, not immediately before it.

Note:Although it is inconvenient having tracing delayed, it was the right design approach to take. If tracing took place immediately, then the NewtonScript byte code interpreter would have to check the value of trace on every instruction rather than only every so often. The trade-off--speedier code execution versus immediate tracing--is worth it.

An online version of Programming for the Newton using Macintosh, 2nd ed. ©1996, 1994, Julie McKeehan and Neil Rhodes.

Last modified: 1 DEC 1996