How can I start the python console within a program (for easy debugging)?

Question

After years of research programming in Matlab, I miss the way I could pause a program mid-execution and inspect the variables, do plotting, save/modify data, etc. via the intera

Answer 1

The excellent solution I found was to use the 'code' module. I can now call 'DebugKeyboard()' from anywhere in my code and the interpreter prompt will pop-up, allowing me to examine variables and run code. CTRL-D will continue the program.

import code
import sys    

def DebugKeyboard(banner="Debugger started (CTRL-D to quit)"):

    # use exception trick to pick up the current frame
    try:
        raise None
    except:
        frame = sys.exc_info()[2].tb_frame.f_back

    # evaluate commands in current namespace
    namespace = frame.f_globals.copy()
    namespace.update(frame.f_locals)

    print "START DEBUG"
    code.interact(banner=banner, local=namespace)
    print "END DEBUG"