VRPG - Source Level Debugging

By George Farr and Scott Ripley

Introduction

This is the third article describing the new VRPG Client product. The first article, published in May, presented an overview of VRPG and its components. The second article, published in July, described the new operation codes and changes that were made to the ILE RPG language to allow the language to fully utilize the workstation environment.

Although most VRPG programmers will never write buggy code, the VRPG environment contains a source level debugger, just in case! This article will describe the Interactive Presentation Manager Debugger (IPMD) supplied with the VRPG product to allow you to debug your RPG source code. This powerful debugger allows the VRPG programmer to set breakpoints, look at RPG fields and storage, set trace points on storage, change field representations, and step through the program. All this is done by simply using the mouse and not using the traditional way of entering commands on the command line.

Starting the Debugger

What are the normal application development processes? Well, in VRPG you first create your screens using the Graphical User Interface (GUI) builder as we have shown you in previous articles. You then add RPG source code to the screens. Once this is all done, you finally build your RPG application using the 'Build' option on the project menu item shown in Figure 1. Once the project is built, if the need arises to debug it, the next step will be to run the project under debug using the 'Debug' option on the project menu as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Starting the VRPG Debugger.

When the debugger starts, two windows will be displayed. The first window is the debug session control window that displays all of your project's active objects. This includes the RPG EXE and DLL that contain your RPG logic. The second window will display your RPG source code including the line sequence number where you may add breakpoints. You will note that the first RPG source line will be highlighted to indicate the position of the executing program. Once both of these windows are displayed on the screen, and the first line is highlighted, the debugger at that point will wait for the next action from the programmer. In other words, at this point you can add breakpoints, monitor variables, and basically do any function you wish to do before telling the debugger to continue executing. When you are ready to run the program you simply press the letter 'R' and that will run the debugger to the next breakpoint or to the end of the program.

In the IPMD debugger there are different options for doing the same task. For example, to continue executing the program you can press the letter 'R', you can move the mouse to the green circle on the title bar and press it, or you can select the Run option.

VRPG Debugger Description

The VRPG debugger is an easy to use tool that will help the programmer to find and correct any errors in the code. The VRPG source level debugger is a Presentation Manager application that allows the programmer to perform these important functions:

Setting line breakpoints You can easily set or delete breakpoints by double-clicking on the source line number. The application will stop when it gets to the source line with the breakpoint. In Figure 2., to the left of the Source window, you can see 2 highlighted (actually red, in color) line numbers; these are breakpoints. One is set at line 20 and the other is set at line 36. Also note that line 36 is black. This signifies the current line that the debugger has halted on. When execution resumes (by clicking on the green circle or using the Run menu option), this will be the starting point.

View data The source level debugger is column sensitive. When you double-click on the main VRPG columns ( e.g., Factor 1, Factor 2, Result field, Indicators fields, D specification Name ), the variable contained within that field will be displayed in the Program Monitor window of the debugger. This window contains all variables that are to be monitored. As the value of the variables change in the program, the value displayed by the Program Monitor will change as well. The displayed value can be in the default representation, character or decimal, or you can change the representation to hexadecimal. All types of data can be monitored; data structures, arrays and standalone fields. The Program Monitor window can not only display the value of a field, but can also be used to change the value of a field. Just type in The new value in the space beside the field name. In Figure 2., there are displayed many different types of data. There are date fields, time fields, arrays, data structures, pointers, standalone fields and indicators. When arrays and data structures are displayed by name all elements are displayed. If you explicitly display only a particular element of an array then only that element will be displayed.

Setting Change Address breakpoints These breakpoints stop the execution of your program after the contents of a memory location are changed. To set Change Address breakpoints, use the Breakpoints menu.

Single stepping the application The debugger allows you to step through your application line by line as you watch the value of a variable change. The next line to be executed will be darkened.

Viewing storage You can display storage and watch it as it is changed. In Figure 2., there is a pointer, PTR, that is set to the address of the standalone field FIRST. The address of PTR is displayed. This value is then typed into the Storage window in the first column labeled "Flat". This causes the storage from that address to be displayed. As you can see here is contains the value of the field FIRST. The Storage window can be displayed by clicking on the spy-glass icon (in the Source window) or by choosing the Storage option of the Windows menu item.

Figure 2. The VRPG Source Level Debugger..

Customizing Your Debug Session

The IPMD debugger allows you to customize your debug session. For example, you can set the fonts that you prefer. To accomplish this, you select 'Options' followed by 'Fonts'. Select the pull down menu for fonts and then pick the desired font and press OK. This will change the font in your debug session. Another example is setting the data representation for specific data type. For example you can tell the debugger that you want all character data to be displayed in hexadecimal format. Or all zoned fields to be displayed in hexadecimal or decimal format. Once you customize the debugger, you can save this and the debug session thereafter will use the same settings.

Summary

An important part of the development cycle is debugging the application you are building. The VRPG source level debugger is an easy to use, graphical debugger that allows you to debug your VRPG applications quickly. Using the VRPG debugger, you can display variables, the program source, and storage. As variables and storage change so does their display. Along with the ability to set/remove breakpoints and to single step through VRPG code, you will be able to quickly find and remove the few bugs you will have in your VRPG code.

In future articles, we will focus on other components of VRPG such as the LPEX editor and the GUI designer. For more information on VRPG and other IBM products, surf the IBM home page (URL http://www.ibm.com).

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