SYSTEM AND PROCESS FOR DEBUGGING OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING CODE

• US 20100050157A1
• Filed: 10/07/2008
• Published: 02/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Daniel, Maxime
• Granted Patent: US 8,291,386 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/125
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3624 by performing operations on the source code, e.g. via a compiler

Abstract

A process and system for interactive debugging of a computer program, is provided. One implementation involves providing a class for an object oriented computer program capable of executing on a computer system, the class having class methods defining a semantic field of the class; automatically monitoring the class during execution of the program, and leveraging said class methods by executing the class methods upon object-typed variables to obtain a pseudo-field value; and presenting the pseudo-field value along with fields of the said object-typed variables, on a user interface for debugging purposes.

Claims

1. A method of interactive debugging of a computer program, comprising:

providing a class for an object oriented computer program capable of executing on a computer system, the class having class methods defining a semantic field of the class;

automatically monitoring the class during execution of the program, and leveraging said class methods by executing the class methods upon object-typed variables to obtain a pseudo-field value; and

presenting the pseudo-field value along with fields of the said object-typed variables, on a user interface for debugging purposes.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein leveraging said class methods further include:

for variables of an object type, for all class methods that have a return type and do not take parameters, deriving a pseudo-field name from each class method name, executing the class method to obtain a pseudo-field value, and using the class method names and values as if they were the names and values of a regular field.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a view for presenting relevant information to a user.

4. The method of claim 1 further including applying matching and/or filtering rules to select a class method for leveraging.

5. The method of claim 1 further including controlling execution of the computer program.

6. A system for interactive debugging of a computer program, comprising:

a debugging module configured for monitoring a computer program executing on one or more processors, the computer program including a class having class methods defining a semantic field of the class;

the debugging module including a leveraging function configured for leveraging said class methods by executing the class methods upon object-typed variables to obtain a pseudo-field value; and

a user interface module configured for presenting the pseudo-field value along with fields of the said object-typed variables, on a user interface for debugging purposes.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the leveraging function is further configured such that:

for variables of an object type, for all class methods that have a return type and do not take parameters, the leveraging function derives a pseudo-field name from each class method name, executes the class method to obtain a pseudo-field value, and uses the class method names and values as if they were the names and values of a regular field.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the user interface includes a view for presenting relevant information to a user.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein the leveraging function is further configured for applying matching and/or filtering rules to select a class method for leveraging.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein the debugging module is further configured for controlling execution of the computer program.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the user interface module is further configured for enabling a user to interact with the debugging system and control execution of the computer program to diagnose the behavior of the computer program.

12. The system of claim 6 further including a database maintaining symbolic information about the computer program, wherein the debugging module is further configured for interacting with the symbolic information to determine the names and types of the fields of variables and to elaborate a list of all methods that can be called upon the variables, wherein the methods have no parameter and return a value.

13. A computer program product for interactive debugging of an application program, comprising a computer usable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

monitor the application program executing on one or more processors, the application program including a class having class methods defining a semantic field of the class;

leverage said class methods by executing the class methods upon object-typed variables to obtain a pseudo-field value; and

present information including the pseudo-field value along with fields of the said object-typed variables, on a user interface for debugging.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein leveraging said class method further causes the computer to:

for variables of an object type, for all class methods that have a return type and do not take parameters, derive a pseudo-field name from each class method name, execute the class method to obtain a pseudo-field value, and use the class method names and values as if they were the names and values of a regular field.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein said user interface includes a view for presenting relevant information to a user.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein leveraging said class method further causes the computer to:

apply matching and/or filtering rules to select a class method for leveraging.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer program further causes the computer to:

control execution of the application program.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein:

presenting information further causes the computer to;

enable the user to interact with debugging of the application program, and control execution of the application program to diagnose the behavior of the application program.

19. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer comprises one or more processors.

20. The computer program product of claim 13 further causing the computer to maintain a database of symbolic information about the application program, and interact with the symbolic information to determine the names and types of the fields of variables and to elaborate a list of all methods that can be called upon the variables, wherein the methods have no parameter and return a value.