Bug 29312 – reorganize debug target API

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: INVALID
• Component: Web Inspector (Deprecated)

[Patrick Mueller]

See bug 27514, comment 23 :

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> +    WebInspector.console._evalInInspectedWindow(expression, appendResult.bind(this, expression, i));
> 
> You should make _evalInInspectedWindow public. I would recomend moving it to
> inspector.js can calling it WebInspector.evalInInspectedWindow. That is where
> it should have been all along.

I agree this API needs to be made public and moved somewhere else.  But I'd
like to do it in a separate patch:

...

- I'd like to actually step back and see if we can find a good home for all
these target-introspective APIs.  Putting it just on WebInspector itself
probably doesn't make too much sense - perhaps a new class called TargetMirror
or something? 

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That's me wondering if we should put all of these target-related APIs in one place.  Things like:

- eval against global ( doEvalInWindow() )
- eval against global or currently selected stack frame (what _evalInInspectedWindow() does)
- getProperties(), setPropertyValue from InjectedScriptAccess
- ObjectPropertyProxy() and ObjectProxy() from WebInspector

On a related note, there seems to be some interest around for remote debug APIs; a colleague at work has set up a google group http://groups.google.com/group/webdebugprotocol (not terribly active at the moment), Google has some kind of remote debug API for Chrome tied into an Eclipse front end - http://blog.chromium.org/2009/08/google-chrome-developer-tools-for.html .

Not quite ready to suggest that Drosera be revived (if it's even dead, not sure), but it might be useful to start thinking in terms of the APIs that developers will be needing for building debuggers in general, so we can start thinking about some common capabilities, lingo, etc.  In the future, this may allow developers more choice in development tooling, as well as potentially allow reuse of the significant investment already made, and to be made, in Web Inspector.

I'll also note that I have asked up on the es-discuss mailing list about whether the ECMAScript standards group would be interested in looking at standardizing on debug APIs, and received positive feedback.

For some generalist backgrounder material, check out the Mirrors paper: http://bracha.org/mirrors.pdf

[Brian Burg]

Closing as invalid, as this bug pertains to the old inspector UI and/or its tests.
Please file a new bug (https://www.webkit.org/new-inspector-bug) if the bug/feature/issue is still relevant to WebKit trunk.