HenriNext

I finally got the courage to deploy new version under heavy traffic, so it's mid 2020 now. No more snarky comments for half a year :)

Very sensible viewpoint, thank you. Perhaps perpetual licenses and subscriptions could co-exist as alternatives, and customers can choose whichever they prefer.

Sure, I can add that to next major beta. Thanks for the suggestion!

Yep, it was already mentioned somewhere here, but basically: I agree & will do.

I look forward to your feedback on the actual product, be as brutal as you can / want! :)

Hmm, if setting --primary didn't help, then it might not have worked (aka Bug in BugJail..). I'd love to check that further tomorrow, if you have couple of minutes?

As for the search/query timeline, I'm afraid to say anything more exact than "month or two". The core search/query is working on dev version, but it needs a lot of work.

Alright, I'll add writing blog post about the implementation to my TODO list. And my feeling is closer to exhausted than encouraged, I was just going to bed, after day of 45c heat, when the half-finished landing page hit HN front page, and it's now 7AM :)

I don't know! How much would you pay for it?

However, I can promise that the pricing model will be perpetual license based, NOT a subscription that "only costs you one cup of coffee per day"..

Thanks, I'll do as you recommend: JRE as dependency and add .tar.gz packaging. And shoot me an email if you'd like notification when done(my email is in the contact page).

Yep, I think video would be a perfect fit.

About performance impact and program size: BugJail can be used also with hardcore programs, like databases and compilers, where event based record-and-replay debuggers typically struggle. There's still significant performance hit, around "twice as slow", but it won't be orders of magnitude slower.

Also, BugJail is tested with large applications. For example one test is startup sequence of Eclipse, on 5 year old box with 32GB. The result is ~700 million rows in database, in ~30 seconds. It does consume all memory, and your workstation will scream for mercy, but it gets there :)

Direct DB query is not available in current beta, but it is partially implemented in dev version: it shows the results, but there is no navigation from the query results to CallTree, Source code view etc. So: coming, but not yet.

I hope I answered your questions at least partially? It's 7AM in the morning, after one of the hottest days in Australian history, and a surprise appearance in HN front page, so I might not be quite the sharpest tool at the moment :)

I totally agree on the demand, but on the effort side the dynamic nature of JS makes it really tricky to do right. Thanks for your comment & let me know how it goes!

Nope, at least not at the moment: BugJail is closed source.

The source and tracing sides will definitely get fully integrated. This is only the second beta that even has the source side at all, so it's just "early days".

The line/statement level traditional debugging is possible to implement with currently captured information, but the implementation is seriously hard, likely in 2021+ timeframe.

About the specific issue: I'd really like to get that fixed, do you think you could shoot me an email so that I can followup in case that i cannot repro the bug (my email is in the contact page)?

Many thanks for the feedback & apologies that the initial experience wasn't so great

If you also add GUI after the database, then it mostly is :)

Thanks for the feedback. I'll follow your advice.

It probably doesn't matter, but the third screenshot wasn't any kind of planned attempt of being edgy/cool. Just another 16h coding day ending in bit more lighthearted way.

Thanks, really great point. BugJail actually started life as internal tool for dynamic analysis, not for debugging. The longer term vision is merging of dynamic and static analysis, so not exactly, or only, "better debugger".

I hope I didn't (again) express my self badly...

Of course I'm not expecting to be spoon-fed with a ready made pricing model, but was just trying to get overall sentiment..

You make a lot of great points, and this is one area where I definitely need help, so thank you for your offer. I'll get in touch after I've survived today :)

Thanks. My current plan is pretty much exactly that: perpetual license for $ X including 1 year of updates, then $ 0.5X for additional year of updates/maintenance.

The main thing I'm uncertain about is the value of X :)

Well, I will :)

I'm doing this mainly to help other developers, so I don't care that much if my monthly recurring revenue or whatever doesn't please Sandhill Road.

I totally understand your point.

The search functionality is currently under development, and it's by far the most critical 'missing' feature.

As a workaround for webapps: using the 'Capturing Assistant' and configuring BugJail to capture only your own packages helps a lot. That way you usually see clearly which thread handled the request, and also have less app-server / framework level crap that you need to expand through before you get to your own code.

If you'd like to get notified when the search functionality is available, just shoot me an email (my email is in the contact page).

Thanks for providing the feedback, and sorry that the initial experience wasn't better.

Actually, it does work without source code (or, should work)

The left side 'CallTree' is fully functional, and shows owner instances, arguments and return values. If you click those, then the Object/Array is displayed at bottom and is expandable just like in normal debugger (+slider to change debug time). So only the right side "Source" view is missing if you don't have source.

If the above doesn't work, could you get in touch and I'll get it sorted out? https://support.bugjail.com

And fully agreed on Java 9+ support, coming in next beta.

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm actually half-way migrating from Kubuntu to Arch..

But sure, I'll get .tar.gz done.

And if you'd like to get notified when done, just send your contact info (my email is in the 'contact' page). Thanks for the feedback!

The execution logs (or "Captures", in our Jail terminology..) do get fairly large if you capture something hardcore, like database or compiler.

For normal web/business/enterprise applications you can configure BugJail to only capture your own packages, which massively reduces the file size (and performance impact).

To give concrete example of hardcore scenario, capturing startup of Elasticsearch results in about 85MB file.

There is no way to enable capturing dynamically, and this is likely never going to be supported, due to the way how BugJail works (it reconstructs the program execution, so if beginning of the execution is missing, "things are not fine").

Neither actually. But if there's interest for the technical side, I could perhaps write a blog post?

Thanks, actually I'd gladly accept your offer! Seems I really need help with my English :) My email is in the contact page :)

Yeah, Java 9+ is on roadmap for next beta.

When the previous major beta was released there was one dependency that didn't support Java 9 and locked everything to 8.

If you'd like get notified when Java 11 support is ready, you can just send one line ping email (my email address is in the 'contact' page).

Many thanks for the feedback!

That 2018 is a really unfortunate typo, but I feel hesitant to deploy fix now as the traffic is heavy.

I agree on all points, and have no excuses; the landing page wasn't ready for being surprise featured in HN.

Many thanks for your feedback & apologies that I provided such a crap experience.

Thanks, that 2018 is a very unfortunate typo, should have been 2019.

And agreed, video would be great, but it takes fair bit of time away from development, so I'm undecided.

Actually, the 20 million events per second is the real event count, and on top of that comes processing..

There is no single trick, just lot of hard work.

If there's interest, I can write a blog post about this.

Thanks for the feedback. Quick replies:

- The Linux packaging will be re-done from scratch (previous beta had completely re-done packaging for Windows and Mac, re-done Linux packaging coming in next beta) and I'll make sure all these get fixed.

- The license is displayed in the launcher screen (before you click "Enter BugJail"), but i'll make it also available online, good point, thanks.

- Redistributing Oracle JRE as part of BugJail package is done exactly according to their redistribution terms, no problems there.

- The reason for redistributing JRE has more to do with Windows and Mac, where 'marking it as dependency' is not an option. I'll reconsider how to do this when the Linux packaging is rewritten.

- Would AppImage packaging work for you? What distro do you use?