The PowerCOBOL Debugger helps you find, identify and fix errors in your application. It allows you to:
control program execution
set breakpoints
monitor and dynamically change data
You can instruct a program to execute in different ways: unconditionally, by stepping over entire procedures, or in single statement steps.
Unconditional execution runs straight through an application, pausing only for breakpoints and user interface input. You may, for example, set a breakpoint at a particular execution location, and run the application through in high speed to get to that point, without being forced to single step through every prior execution statement.
Stepping over entire procedures (executing an entire procedure or called program as a single step) allows you to exercise some control in stepping through the logic of an application without being forced to watch every individual logic branch and execution statement while debugging.
Single step execution stops the application after each instruction, thus allowing you to watch every individual execution statement, with the option of examining and changing data and object properties at ant any time.
A breakpoint is a marker that you put into one or more locations in an application to force the Debugger to pause, and return control to you at a specified location in your source code before proceeding. The PowerCOBOL Debugger supports both conditional and unconditional breakpoints.
An unconditional breakpoint forces the execution to pause at a given execution statement anytime the flow of execution encounters the statement. Unconditional breakpoints can be set at any execution point within a program.
A conditional breakpoint will only pause execution at a given execution statement if a specific condition you've specified has been met (for example, a data item named "My-Counter" being equal to 10). Conditional breakpoints save you from having to step through every iteration of a specific statement and having to manually check a data item's value each time.
The PowerCOBOL Debugger also allows you set conditional breakpoints based upon whenever a specific application event occurs (for example, when a user clicks on the OK button), or whenever a specific program in the application is entered, or even when a specific function within a specific program in an application is invoked.
You can additionally monitor any data item in the application through the use of the Watch and Quick Watch options. The Watch option will display the data item name and its current value in a list within the main Debugger window. This allows you to monitor a data item during execution. The Quick Watch option will show you the current value of a data item without adding it to the list of data items being monitored in the main Debugger window. Additionally, Quick Watch will allow you to change a data item's current value dynamically ("on the fly").
The PowerCOBOL Debugger also allows you to make program modifications to the source code as you debug. These modifications will not take effect until you re-build the application. This allows you to debug, make changes, and continue testing within the same highly integrated PowerCOBOL development environment.
When you find an error in a program, you may immediately correct the problem. After removing the error, you have the option of continuing the current test with the Debugger or of saving your changes, rebuilding the application and restarting the debug process. Continue with either process until all errors have been removed from the program.
