The main Debugger window is displayed in figure 7.3. This window consists of a new tab that has been added to the main PowerCOBOL Project Manager window. Note that the two previous tabs - Design and Build - are still present. You may at any time during the debug process select one of these other tabs to view related information.
The Design tab is of special interest, as it still displays all of the application's objects in the Project Manager Window and each object's current properties when selected.
Selecting the Design tab does not terminate the Debugger, and you may step freely back and forth between these facilities.
Note that the application's project view is still visible in the upper left-hand windowpane. At any time during debugging, you can select procedures (scriptlets) from the project view to open them up in an Editor window.
While debugging, when you step into one of these procedures for execution, it will automatically be opened up in an Editor window to allow you to step through its associated event procedure code.
In the center right windowpane of the Debug tab, there is an area for listing Data Name and Value. The PowerCOBOL Debugger allows you to watch any number of data items in order to monitor their values as the application executes. This centralized area in the window displays all currently "watched" data items and their current values.
To the immediate left of the Data Name area is an empty windowpane with horizontal lines. During execution of the application, the program currently being executed and the specific procedure currently being executed will be displayed here, along with the current line number of each procedure awaiting execution.
The bottom windowpane is an information area. Debugger and run-time messages will be displayed here, including any error messages. As shown in figure 7.3, this area contains information indicating the name of the application executable that has been started in the Debugger.
In the very bottom left hand corner of the Debugger window, the word "Ready" is displayed. It is very important to keep an eye on this area of the Debugger window. "Ready" means that the Debugger is currently paused and ready for the user to issue a command. When the Debugger relinquishes control back to the application's user interface and is awaiting an application event to take place, the word "Running" will appear.
Whenever you see the word "Running" here, you will not be able to issue any execution instructions in the Debugger.
You may still, however, use some of the Debugger commands such as setting breakpoints. You may also select Break from the Debug menu to pause execution at the current statement.
Once the Debugger has been started and the application loaded, the application is immediately paused awaiting the first execution instruction. At this point, you may begin executing the application under the Debugger, or you may set breakpoints and/or select data items to watch (monitor) before starting execution.
