Debug Toolbar in JBuilder



The toolbar icons provide you the power to take control of the debug session and are divided into five distinct groups.

1) Main Group

Three buttons control the debugger:

1. Stop debug session

2. Resume debug session

3. Pause debug session

The first group contains the red box which permits you to stop the execution and reset the program. The green arrow permits you to start another session or to continue a paused session. The following are the hot-keys associated with the main group:

F9: Permits the developer to start or resume a debug session.

Ctrl-F12: Permits the developer to stop or reset the program during a debug session.

These hot-keys will be used regularly when debugging large and complex threading programs. If a program seems to hang or if a breakpoint cannot be determined by pressing the Pause button or if the Pause button is pressed, the current executing is loaded. The class does not have to be part of the project and is most likely going to be a class that is located somewhere inside the classpath, which is typically some unclear class deep in the Java language. If the loaded class is unknown, clicking the Reset program will stop the debug session and return control back to JBuilder.

2) Control Group

This group contains four buttons. These buttons will controls how the debugger will move throughout the debug process:

1. Toggle Smart Step

2. Step Over

3. Step Into

4. Step Out

The next section of icons, called the control group, goes from the right side. It contains the execution stepping tasks. The Toggle Smart Step is necessary on large projects because it permits you to control what classes you are going to step into or skip during the debug process. The next icon is the Step Over task; it is the most common debug task because it simply executes the line it is on. Remember that it does not matter if the line is calling a method or is just an assignment statement; the Step Over task will do just that—it will not trace into a method. The next icon is the Step Into task, which does permit you to Step Into a method. The hot-keys for the methods of the group are as follows:

F8: Permits a Step Over operation to occur.
F7: Permits a Step Into operation to occur.

Then finally is the Step Out icon, which permits you to revert to the calling method from which you step into. This is really handy, especially when you step into a method that is going to iterate 5 million times, walk through the iteration once, see the information you came to see, and then press the Step Out icon, and you are back to the method that called it.

3) Code Modification Group

This group of two buttons is responsible for controlling modification to the code during a debug session:

1. Smart Swap

2. Set Execution Point

4) Code Type Group

This one button permits for the defining of the source code to be viewed when debugging a mixed-language environment like Java and JSPs:

1. Smart Source

These items all have to do with the ability for JDK 1.4.1 and above to alter code while in the debugging process without having to start, recompile, and re-debug.

5) Information Group

This group contains three buttons. It is about setting stops in the code, reviewing information, and going to the current active thread location.

1. Add Breakpoints

2. Add Watch

3. Show Current Frame

The Information group is the final set of icons in the Debug session toolbar. Going from the right, it contains the Add Breakpoint icon, which has a drop-down button, and it permits you to set all the available breakpoints. The next icon is the Add Watch task, which permits you to name your watch and give it a complete description. This assists when you have a set of watches, and with some of the coding standards today, you may need a description to figure out where you are. The last icon represents the Show Current Frame option; it simply means to take the developer to the currently running thread of execution, which is the current frame.