I have developed a .net framework (WPF) application to visually design and run workflows for the desktop. It has a few hundred actions that can be glued together and executed. I have already “RunScript” actions but it lacks debugging. What I need is:
create/edit a script in design mode. The script source will be passed by the before-mentioned action (as a string) to the editor.
in run mode: run the script without any script editor/debugging window if there is no breakpoint. It also shouldn’t have a significant performance cost.
in run mode: pop up the editor/debugging window when there is a breakpoint. The window may be left open but shouldn’t have a significant performance cost.
on run completion: automatically close the editor/debugging window
Would AlterNET Scripter fit this scenario? It is really intended for end-users so I can’t expect them to do complex steps to attach debuggers etc.
Sure, it is completely possible to use AlterNET Scripter for your needs.
Performance overhead related to debugging is generally low. It is comparable to a difference between running your .NET application under Visual Studio debugger versus running it without any debugger - i.e. not very different in terms of performance. The debugger window is run in a separate process, so the application UI performance overhead should not be an issue also.
Your use case almost fits a general scenario covered by AlternetStudio and DebugMyScript demos. The only thing that is different is you need to have your debugger window hidden while not stopped on breakpoint. To achieve that, you can start off with DebugMyScript demo as a basis, and then when you have the debugger working, you can modify the AlternetStudio demo code so that the main window is hidden on startup, and it gets shown in Debugger_ExecutionStopped event handler (i.e. on breakpoint). We will of course help you out should you have any questions.