Features: Interactive Debugging Option

Debugging User Language requests can be a frustrating and time consuming process. Faced with the symptom of application error, such as a run-time message, you must determine the cause. Without quick access to the proper information even simple bugs can take hours to fix.

SoftSpy provides the detailed information required to quickly and efficiently pinpoint the precise cause of a problem. This transforms debugging from an art into a science. It becomes straightforward to track down a problem when appropriate information is available. Productivity of both junior and senior level staff members is increased tremendously.

SoftSpy users routinely report solving problems in minutes rather than the hours they believe it would have taken without SoftSpy.

Run-time Errors

SoftSpy lets you quickly track down run-time errors. After intercepting a typical error like divide by zero, SoftSpy displays a detailed diagnostic screen.

The name of the request being evaluated is shown on the second line of the screen followed by a window into the complete request with all includes expanded.

The current line (indicated by => in the prefix area) is positioned on the line that caused the error. The values of variables at the time of the error are displayed in the monitor window.

If you need additional information, you can easily examine the values of any variables, look at any portion of the program, or find out the sequence of statements executed prior to the error. This information makes it simple to determine the cause of the problem.

Compilation Errors

SoftSpy also simplifies tracking down compilation errors. When they occur SoftSpy displays the User Language request. Compilation error messages are embedded within the request immediately following the offending statement.

The current line is positioned on the first line that contains a syntax error. Function keys are provided to jump forward to the next line containing an error or backward to the previous error line.

Application Understanding

Understanding how an application works requires that you run the application to learn the user interface. It also requires that you study the procedures and data used by the application.

SoftSpy allows you to quickly learn how applications work by integrating these activities together. You can clearly see which procedures are responsible for which portions of the user interface, and you can watch the interaction between the program and the data. Seeing this interaction allows rapid in-depth understanding of an application.

The speed with which SoftSpy helps staff members understand applications has substantial benefits. It enables organizations to accomplish objectives that would otherwise be virtually impossible.

Staff members can be transitioned to new projects since the systems they know can be more easily understood and maintained by others. Employee turnover and reorganizations can be handled with much less disruption.

Enhancements can be made to older systems that are not well understood by the remaining staff. SoftSpy even makes it easy to decipher applications written using statement numbers.

Option Features

The interactive debugging option provides a number of features that augment the basic SoftSpy environment to provide a robust interactive debugging environment.

Commands

  • Establish the interactive debugging environment.
  • Scroll forward and backward among statements with compilation errors.
  • Scroll backward and forward in the history of previously executed statements.
  • Establish actions to perform when compilation or run-time errors are detected.
  • Modify the value of global variables and percent variables.

SoftSpy Data

Information about the following types of operands is provided:

  • fields
  • global variables
  • image items
  • menu items
  • percent variables
  • screen items
  • $ERRMSG
  • $STATUS
  • $STATUSD

Other SoftSpy Features: Quality Assurance Testing Option | Interactive Performance Tuning Option | Error Audit Option