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The Machinations debugger monitors every error and warning detected by the orchestrator during diagram creation and while an interactive play is running.

Creating extensive diagrams to represent intricate economies and models can sometimes be a challenging task. As such, without fail, even experienced designers don’t always get their expected results on the first iteration of the diagram. To aid in this process, the debugger was implemented with the main purpose of helping prevent, identify, and resolve potential issues that may arise while creating diagrams.

What are the most common issues in Machinations?

Based on the feedback from our users, we identified the following frequent errors and mistakes in the diagrams:

Incorrect formula syntax in registers or connections due to missing parentheses, commas, capitalization, or general typos in Math.js formulas;
Undefined or incorrectly typed custom variables;
Specific errors triggered by Math.js, such as mismatched operator length, incorrect operator type, and insufficient number of mandatory parameters;
Diagramming mistakes on connection: Missing connected origin or target nodes, or incompatible formulas;
Diagramming misuses for specific components such as Gates, Traders, and Converters;

How to read the debugger

Timestamp of the debugger entry;
Error type: Execution or Compilation;
- Execution: Issues encountered on the diagram during interactive plays;
- Compilation: Issues detected during diagram creation, before a play;
The node label, including node ID, node type, or the user-defined label;
The error message detailing the cause of the issue;

Prevention is always the key! The error detection process can start with the first nodes added to the diagram. The first action of the debugger is to check for compilation issues before running a play. Each time a node is added or modified on the canvas, the debugger checks for errors and displays each one with the “Compile” tag.

When all compilation errors are detected, you can run an interactive play to check how the diagram is executed. In each simulation step, the debugger monitors each time a node is disabled due to an unexpected cause, such as missing connections, incorrect node types, misused custom variables, and many more.

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Clicking on any entry on the debugger will select and highlight the errored component directly on the diagram! This includes errors on the custom variables panel. As such, editing the node and resolving the issue is convenient and easy.

If there are too many messages in the debugger you can use the debugger node selector to filter them based on the type of errored node. For example you can filter only the issues generated by pools and resolve them one by one.

What issues are detected by the debugger?

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Currently, the debugger is in its first iteration and the logged errors are not refined yet.

Several problems, like misspelled variable names are not defined in the app and are not visible in the debugger. We are constantly working to improve this functionality and updates will be launched regularly. If you have any feedback, improvements, or any suggested issues that should be added to the debugger, please contact us on the dedicated chat.

Here is a list of Execution errors detected and displayed by the debugger during an interactive play:

Missing input state connection
Missing active output state connection
Missing active output resource connection
Missing active input resource connection
Pool missing resources, active input resource connection, or active input Node Modifiers
Missing input connection or trigger
Traders require exactly two different color coded Resources as input and output. Make sure Color Coding is ticked.
Traders require exactly two pairs of active Resource Connections differentiated through colour coding. Make sure Color Coding is ticked.
Traders require all active input Resource Connections to be colour coded, even if one of the colours is the default Black. Make sure Color Coding is ticked.
Traders require all active outputs Resource Connections to be colour coded, even if one of the colours is the default Black. Make sure Color Coding is ticked.
Converters require at least one active input Resources Connection and exactly one active output Resource Connection.
Missing origin Node
Missing target Node
Connection disabled due to missing or disabled origin or targets
Connection disabled because of invalid formula
Trigger connection disabled because target is disabled
Connection disabled because disabled origin
Missing at least one active output resource connection
Resource connection disabled due to incompatible target
Trigger connection disabled because it’s source is a gate with active input resource connection
Connection disabled due to infinite looping resources
Component disabled due to conflict on activation
Gates require all their active output State Connections to be of the same type: conditional or random
Node disabled by all activators
Register disabled due to dependency on the input chain
Node disabled due to infinite loop detected
Interactive registers can not generate trigger
Delays cannot have more than one active output Resource Connections
Gates require all their active output Resource Connections to be of the same type: conditional or random
Register output State Connection cannot target to a<Node name>
Connection disabled because of the origin not being a number

During the diagram-building phase (named compile in the debugger), the debugger will report the formula issues detected in the Math.js library. On the following list you can find the potential errors defined in this library:

RangeError: invalid array length
RangeError: invalid date
RangeError: precision is out of range
RangeError: radix must be an integer
RangeError: repeat count must be less than infinity
RangeError: repeat count must be non-negative
RangeError: x can’t be converted to BigInt because it isn’t an integer
ReferenceError: “x” is not defined
ReferenceError: assignment to undeclared variable “x”
ReferenceError: can’t access lexical declaration ‘X’ before initialization
ReferenceError: deprecated caller or arguments usage
ReferenceError: reference to undefined property “x”
SyntaxError: “0”-prefixed octal literals and octal escape seq. are deprecated
SyntaxError: “use strict” not allowed in function with non-simple parameters
SyntaxError: “x” is a reserved identifier
SyntaxError: JSON.parse: bad parsing
SyntaxError: Unexpected ‘#’ used outside of class body
SyntaxError: Unexpected token
SyntaxError: Using //@ to indicate sourceURL pragmas is deprecated. Use //# instead
SyntaxError: a declaration in the head of a for-of loop can’t have an initializer
SyntaxError: applying the ‘delete’ operator to an unqualified name is deprecated
SyntaxError: await is only valid in async functions, async generators and modules
SyntaxError: cannot use ?? unparenthesized within || and && expressions
SyntaxError: continue must be inside loop
SyntaxError: for-in loop head declarations may not have initializers
SyntaxError: function statement requires a name
SyntaxError: getter and setter for private name #x should either be both static or non-static
SyntaxError: identifier starts immediately after numeric literal
SyntaxError: illegal character
SyntaxError: invalid BigInt syntax
SyntaxError: invalid assignment left-hand side
SyntaxError: invalid regular expression flag “x”
SyntaxError: label not found
SyntaxError: missing ) after argument list
SyntaxError: missing ) after condition
SyntaxError: missing : after property id
SyntaxError: missing ; before statement
SyntaxError: missing = in const declaration
SyntaxError: missing ] after element list
SyntaxError: missing formal parameter
SyntaxError: missing name after . operator
SyntaxError: missing variable name
SyntaxError: missing } after function body
SyntaxError: missing } after property list
SyntaxError: redeclaration of formal parameter “x”
SyntaxError: return not in function
SyntaxError: test for equality (==) mistyped as assignment (=)?
SyntaxError: unlabeled break must be inside loop or switch
SyntaxError: unparenthesized unary expression can’t appear on the left-hand side of ‘**’
SyntaxError: unterminated string literal
TypeError: “x” has no properties
TypeError: “x” is (not) “y”
TypeError: “x” is not a constructor
TypeError: “x” is not a function
TypeError: “x” is not a non-null object
TypeError: “x” is read-only
TypeError: ‘x’ is not iterable
TypeError: More arguments needed
TypeError: Reduce of empty array with no initial value
TypeError: X.prototype.y called on incompatible type
TypeError: can’t assign to property “x” on “y”: not an object
TypeError: can’t convert BigInt to number
TypeError: can’t convert x to BigInt
TypeError: can’t define property “x”: “obj” is not extensible
TypeError: can’t delete non-configurable array element
TypeError: can’t redefine non-configurable property “x”
TypeError: can’t set prototype: it would cause a prototype chain cycle
TypeError: cannot use ‘in’ operator to search for ‘x’ in ‘y’
TypeError: cyclic object value
TypeError: invalid ‘instanceof’ operand ‘x’
TypeError: invalid Array.prototype.sort argument
TypeError: invalid assignment to const “x”
TypeError: property “x” is non-configurable and can’t be deleted
TypeError: setting getter-only property “x”

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