tools within a debugger

Question 1

Describe the function of a trace.(f)

Answer 1

a facility

displays the order in which the lines of a program will be executed in

and possibly the values of variables as the code is being run

Question 2

Describe the function of a break point.(f)

Answer 2

a facility

interrupts a program at a specific line allowing the programmer to compare the current variable value with the expected value

Question 3

Describe the function of a variable watch.(f)

Answer 3

a facility

displays current value of any variable

value can be watched as the program is single stepped to see effects of code onto the variable

Question 4

Describe the function of single stepping.

Answer 4

program code being executed one line at a time

programmer decides when next step will take place

this helps so that they can examine carefully what the program is doing at the moment

Question 5

Describe the function of a store dump.

Answer 5

displays the contents of all the stores used in the program

Question 6

Describe the function of a memory inspector. (f)

Answer 6

a facility

displays contents of all of the stores in a defined section of memory

Question 7

Describe the function of error diagnostics.

Answer 7

displays error message to help programmer diagnose what has gone wrong when a program fails to run successfully