To start a program in debug mode you should start the program on the command line with the option `-i dbg'. This will load the debugger module into the interpreter before starting to execute the program, and after successful compilation of the code into internal format the execution stops and waits for user intervention.
For example you can say:
scriba -i debugtest.bas
to start the sample program `debugtest.bas' in debug mode. ScriptBasic compiles the program into byte-code and gives you a prompt:
-----------------------------------------------------
>001. print "hello\n"
002. a = 3
003.
004. sub MyFunction(t)
005. local a,b,c
-----------------------------------------------------
#_
ScriptBasic debugger, executing
debugtest.bas
For help type 'h'
(The _ character shows the place of the blinking cursor.)
The debugger has already listed some of the code around the actual program line. The > character precedes the line where the execution of the program is waiting.