A graphical data display server

Abstract

Debugging tools utilizing large data structures such as those specified in IDL would be greatly aided by a graphical display of the data structures. Such a facility coupled with other facilities to keep track of changes to the data structures and to provide access to the declaration of a particular data instance, would greatly improve programmer productivity. Providing this facility as a service that is both portable and independently accessible over the network would provide a true debugging facility in a multi-user distributed environment. A high resolution pictorial display of data structures, combined with a good user interface, a display server for multiple access over the network, a mechanism to freeze the display, and a means to browse the data should provide a better debugging environment for programs using complex data structures. Xidlview is designed to provide these features while maintaining performance and robustness. It runs under the X11 environment and is portable to machines running a variant of the 4.3 BSD Unix operating system.