Debugger.Environment

A Debugger.Environment instance represents a lexical environment, associating names with variables. Each Debugger.Frame instance representing a debuggee frame has an associated environment object describing the variables in scope in that frame; and each Debugger.Object instance representing a debuggee function has an environment object representing the environment the function has closed over.

ECMAScript environments form a tree, in which each local environment is parented by its enclosing environment (in ECMAScript terms, its 'outer' environment). We say an environment binds an identifier if that environment itself associates the identifier with a variable, independently of its outer environments. We say an identifier is in scope in an environment if the identifier is bound in that environment or any enclosing environment.

SpiderMonkey creates Debugger.Environment instances as needed as the debugger inspects stack frames and function objects; calling Debugger.Environment as a function or constructor raises a TypeError exception.

SpiderMonkey creates exactly one Debugger.Environment instance for each environment it presents via a given Debugger instance: if the debugger encounters the same environment through two different routes (perhaps two functions have closed over the same environment), SpiderMonkey presents the same Debugger.Environment instance to the debugger each time. This means that the debugger can use the == operator to recognize when two Debugger.Environment instances refer to the same environment in the debuggee, and place its own properties on a Debugger.Environment instance to store metadata about particular environments.

(If more than one Debugger instance is debugging the same code, each Debugger gets a separate Debugger.Environment instance for a given environment. This allows the code using each Debugger instance to place whatever properties it likes on its own Debugger.Object instances, without worrying about interfering with other debuggers.)

If a Debugger.Environment instance's referent is not a debuggee environment, then attempting to access its properties (other than inspectable) or call any its methods throws an instance of Error.

Debugger.Environment instances protect their referents from the garbage collector; as long as the Debugger.Environment instance is live, the referent remains live. Garbage collection has no visible effect on Debugger.Environment instances.

Accessor Properties of the Debugger.Environment Prototype Object

A Debugger.Environment instance inherits the following accessor properties from its prototype:

inspectable

True if this environment is a debuggee environment, and can therefore be inspected. False otherwise. All other properties and methods of Debugger.Environment instances throw if applied to a non-inspectable environment.

type

The type of this environment object, one of the following values:

• "declarative", indicating that the environment is a declarative environment record. Function calls, calls to eval, let blocks, catch blocks, and the like create declarative environment records.

• "object", indicating that the environment's bindings are the properties of an object. The global object and DOM elements appear in the chain of environments via object environments. (Note that with statements have their own environment type.)

• "with", indicating that the environment was introduced by a with statement.

parent

The environment that encloses this one (the "outer" environment, in ECMAScript terminology), or null if this is the outermost environment.

object

A Debugger.Object instance referring to the object whose properties this environment reflects. If this is a declarative environment record, this accessor throws a TypeError (since declarative environment records have no such object). Both "object" and "with" environments have object properties that provide the object whose properties they reflect as variable bindings.

callee

If this environment represents the variable environment (the top-level environment within the function, which receives var definitions) for a call to a function f, then this property's value is a Debugger.Object instance referring to f. Otherwise, this property's value is null.

optimizedOut

True if this environment is optimized out. False otherwise. For example, functions whose locals are never aliased may present optimized-out environments. When true, getVariable returns an ordinary JavaScript object whose optimizedOut property is true on all bindings, and setVariable throws a ReferenceError.

Function Properties of the Debugger.Environment Prototype Object

The methods described below may only be called with a this value referring to a Debugger.Environment instance; they may not be used as methods of other kinds of objects.

names()

Return an array of strings giving the names of the identifiers bound by this environment. The result does not include the names of identifiers bound by enclosing environments.

getVariable(name)

Return the value of the variable bound to name in this environment, or undefined if this environment does not bind name. Name must be a string that is a valid ECMAScript identifier name. The result is a debuggee value.

JavaScript engines often omit variables from environments, to save space and reduce execution time. If the given variable should be in scope, but getVariable is unable to produce its value, it returns an ordinary JavaScript object (not a Debugger.Object instance) whose optimizedOut property is true.

This is not an invocation function; if this call would cause debuggee code to run (say, because the environment is a "with" environment, and name refers to an accessor property of the with statement's operand), this call throws a Debugger.DebuggeeWouldRun exception.

setVariable(name, value)

Store value as the value of the variable bound to name in this environment. Name must be a string that is a valid ECMAScript identifier name; value must be a debuggee value.

If this environment binds no variable named name, throw a ReferenceError.

This is not an invocation function; if this call would cause debuggee code to run, this call throws a Debugger.DebuggeeWouldRun exception.

getVariableDescriptor(name)

Return an property descriptor describing the variable bound to name in this environment, of the sort returned by Debugger.Object.prototype.getOwnPropertyDescriptor. Name must be a string whose value is a valid ECMAScript identifier name.

If this is an "object" or "with" environment record, this simply returns the descriptor for the given property of the environment's object. If this is a declarative environment record, this returns a descriptor reflecting the binding's mutability as the descriptor's writable property, and its deletability as the descriptor's configurable property. All declarative environment record bindings are marked as enumerable. (This isn't great; the semantics of variables in declarative enviroments don't really match those of properties, so writing code that operates properly on descriptors for either kind may be difficult.)

If this environment binds no variable named name, throw a ReferenceError.

defineVariable(name, descriptor)

Create or reconfigure the variable bound to name in this environment according to descriptor. Descriptor is the sort of value returned by getVariableDescriptor. On success, return undefined; on failure, throw an appropriate exception. Name must be a string whose value is a valid ECMAScript identifier name.

If implementation restrictions prevent SpiderMonkey from creating or reconfiguring the variable as requested, this call throws an Error exception.

deleteVariable(name)

Delete this environment's binding for name.

If this environment binds no variable named name, throw a ReferenceError.

If implementation restrictions prevent SpiderMonkey from deleting the variable as requested, this call throws an Error exception.

find(name)

Return a reference to the innermost environment, starting with this environment, that binds name. If name is not in scope in this environment, return null. Name must be a string whose value is a valid ECMAScript identifier name.

eval(code) (future plan)

Evaluate code in this environment, and return a completion value describing how it completed. Code is a string. All extant handler methods, breakpoints, watchpoints, and so on remain active during the call. This function follows the invocation function conventions.

Code is interpreted as strict mode code when it contains a Use Strict Directive.

If code is not strict mode code, then variable declarations in code affect this environment. (In the terms used by the ECMAScript specification, the VariableEnvironment of the execution context for the eval code is the VariableEnvironment this Debugger.Environment instance represents.) If implementation restrictions prevent SpiderMonkey from extending this environment as requested, this call throws an Error exception.

evalWithBindings(code, bindings) (future plan)

Like eval, but evaluate code in this environment, extended with bindings from the object bindings. For each own enumerable property of bindings named name whose value is value, include a variable in the environment in which code is evaluated named name, whose value is value. Each value must be a debuggee value. (This is not like a with statement: code may access, assign to, and delete the introduced bindings without having any effect on the bindings object.)

This method allows debugger code to introduce temporary bindings that are visible to the given debuggee code and which refer to debugger-held debuggee values, and do so without mutating any existing debuggee environment.

Note that, like eval, declarations in the code passed to evalWithBindings affect this environment, even as code is evaluated with bindings visible. (In the terms used by the ECMAScript specification, the VariableEnvironment of the execution context for the eval code is the VariableEnvironment this environment represents, and the bindings appear in a new declarative environment, which is the eval code's LexicalEnvironment.) If implementation restrictions prevent SpiderMonkey from extending this environment as requested, this call throws an Error exception.

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