SYSTEM AND PROCESS FOR DEBUGGING OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING CODE LEVERAGING PREPROCESSORS

• US 20100050158A1
• 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 8,683,439 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software

Abstract

A process and system for debugging of a computer program, is provided. One implementation involves including mark-up information into source code of the application program, generating a debug-enabled version of the computer program including debugging methods based on the mark-up information, and providing the debug-enabled version of the program computer to a debugger for debugging purposes using the debugging methods.

Claims

1. A method of interactive debugging of an object-oriented computer program, comprising:

including mark-up information into source code of the application program, the mark-up information associated with eligible debugging methods;

generating a debug-enabled version of the computer program including debugging methods based on the mark-up information;

providing the debug-enabled version of the program computer to a debugger for debugging purposes using the debugging methods.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein debugging methods further include eligible debugging methods named after a recognizable pattern.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the debugger comprises a debugger configured for filtering based on naming rules for maintaining eligible methods named after said recognizable pattern, and a short name derivation rule that leverages said recognizable pattern.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the mark-up information comprises specific keywords that are included into comments of the source code for the computer program.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the naming rules include:

a recognizable pattern for debugging methods that is both compatible with the considered programming language for the computer program, and unlikely to appear in typical method names; and

rules for deriving a short name of a debugging method from the method name.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the debugging methods comprise debug-only methods which take no parameter, return a result, and have a name that encodes a marker and a short name.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein generating a debug-enabled version of the computer program further includes generating wrapper debugging methods with the appropriate names.

8. The method of claim 1 further including generating a production version of the computer program.

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

a preprocessing module configured for receiving source code of the computer program including mark-up information, the mark-up information associated with eligible debugging methods, and generating a debug-enabled version of the computer program including debugging methods based on the mark-up information; and

a debugger configured for executing the debug-enabled version of the program computer for debugging purposes using the debugging methods.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein debugging methods further include eligible debugging methods named after a recognizable pattern.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the debugger is configured for filtering based on naming rules for maintaining eligible methods named after said recognizable pattern, and a short name derivation rule that leverages said recognizable pattern.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the mark-up information comprises specific keywords that are included into comments of the source code for the computer program.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the naming rules include:

a recognizable pattern for debugging methods that is both compatible with the considered programming language for the computer program, and unlikely to appear in typical method names; and

rules for deriving a short name of a debugging method from the method name.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein the debugging methods comprise debug-only methods which take no parameter, return a result, and have a name that encodes a marker and a short name.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the preprocessing module is further configured for generating a debug-enabled version of the computer program by generating wrapper debugging methods with the appropriate names.

16. 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:

receive source code of the application program including mark-up information, the mark-up information associated with eligible debugging methods, and generate a debug-enabled version of the application program including debugging methods based on the mark-up information; and

executing the debug-enabled version of the application program for debugging purposes using the debugging methods.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein debugging methods further include eligible debugging methods named after a recognizable pattern, and instructions for executing the debug-enabled version further include instructions for filtering based on naming rules for maintaining eligible methods named after said recognizable pattern, and a short name derivation rule that leverages said recognizable pattern.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the naming rules include:

a recognizable pattern for debugging methods that is both compatible with the considered programming language for the application program, and unlikely to appear in typical method names; and

rules for a desired short name of a debugging method.

19. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the debugging methods comprise debug-only methods which take no parameter, return a result, and have a name that encodes a marker and a short name.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 wherein the instructions to generate a debug-enabled version of the application program further includes instructions to generate a debug-enabled version of the computer program by generating wrapper debugging methods with the appropriate names.