SYSTEM AND PROCESS FOR DEBUGGING OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING CODE LEVERAGING RUNTIME METADATA

• US 20100050159A1
• 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 8,752,020 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 system and process for debugging of a computer program, is provided. One implementation includes a function configured for including mark-up information marking certain methods as special fields in a source code of the application program, such annotations denoting debugging instructions and indications of which methods are intended for debugging only; a processing module configured for generating a production version of the application program including the same semantics as the original application program but potentially fewer methods and no debug related annotations, wherein methods that are not annotated as debugging only methods are maintained; and a debugger configured for debugging purposes using the debugging methods.

Claims

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

marking certain methods as special fields in a source code of the application program for participating in a debugging process;

generating a debug-enabled version of the computer program including debugging methods based on the special fields; and

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

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the programming language is capable of carrying complex meta-data at runtime.

3. The method of claim 1, further including the debugger providing information on a user interface with the special fields.

4. The method of claim 1 further including post-processing the debug-enabled version to eliminate a portion of said debug methods, thereby generating a production system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the debugging methods comprise debug-only methods which take no parameter, and return a result.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein marking certain methods as special fields includes marking certain methods as special fields using programming language annotations.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein generating a debug-enabled version of the computer program includes compiling the annotations and their values into an executable application including debug methods, which a debugger can read and utilize at debug time.

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

a function configured for including mark-up information marking certain methods as special fields in a source code of the application program, such annotations denoting debugging instructions and indications of which methods are intended for debugging only;

a processing module configured for generating a production version of the application program including the same semantics as the original application program but potentially fewer methods and no debug related annotations, wherein methods that are not annotated as debugging only methods are maintained; and

a debugger configured for debugging purposes using the debugging methods.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the programming language is capable of carrying complex meta-data at runtime.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the debugger is configured for providing information on a user interface with the special fields.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor module is further configured for eliminating a portion of said debug methods, thereby generating the production system.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the debugging methods comprise debug-only methods which take no parameter, and return a result.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein said certain methods are marked as special fields using programming language annotations.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the processing module is further configured for compiling the annotations and their values into an executable application including debug methods, which a debugger can read and utilize at debug time.

15. 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 computer program including mark-up information marking certain methods as special fields in a source code of the application program for participating in a debugging process, and generate a debug-enabled version of the computer program including debugging methods based on the special fields; and

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

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the programming language is capable of carrying complex meta-data at runtime.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein debugging instructions further include instructions for providing information on a user interface with the special fields.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 further including instructions for post-processing the debug-enabled version to eliminate a portion of said debug methods, thereby generating a production system.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the debugging methods comprise debug-only methods which take no parameter, return a result.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein said certain methods are marked as special fields using programming language annotations, and instructions for generating a debug-enabled version include instructions for compiling the annotations and their values into an executable application including debug methods, which a debugger can read and utilize at debug time.