[slime-devel] Re: Inspector features regressed

[Lynn Quam]

Madhu wrote:

>  * Helmut Eller <m2tzhlvo1z.fsf at common-lisp.net> :
>  Wrote on Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:20:40 +0200:
>  
>  |> The default slime inspector used to support a variable called
>  |>        SWANK::*SLIME-INSPECT-CONTENTS-LIMIT*
>  |>
>  |> which was useful if you had to inspect large objects for certain
>  |> programs with some characterestics.  This customization has been
>  |> removed[1] by Helmut's patches of 2008-02-09, replaced with hardcoded
>  |> behaviour which is a pain in the ass for a few use cases [that I
>  |> commonly use I can elaborate on these, if someone is interested]
>  |
>  | I would be interested.
>  
>  Working with a large array (say 510 elements) is the most simple example
>  which springs to mind.  Imagine you want to inspect the last 10 objects,
>  by going forwards and backwards in the inspector buffer..  If you cannot
>  customize the variable you are forced to hit MORE for every element >
>  500.
>  
>  Again, large datasets pose a problem with SLIME.  Here mechanism to deal
>  with it was in place.

I consider a 510 element array to be a SMALL array.  Often I deal with
arrays containing many million elements, and yes, the SLIME inspector
has serious problems with large arrays.  There really needs to be a
serious effort to implement some sort of inspection window into large
arrays.