System and process for debugging object-oriented programming code

• US 8,291,386 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2008
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Daniel, Maxime
• Primary Examiner(s): Das, Chameli
• Application Number:
  US12/247,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20100050157A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,470 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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:

employing a hardware processor for 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;

the hardware processor 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, wherein leveraging comprises deriving a pseudo-field name from a name of a class method, executing the class method by the hardware processor and obtaining a pseudo-field value associated with the derived pseudo-class name; and

presenting the pseudo-field value along with true 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 pseudo-field names and pseudo-field values as if they were the names and values of a regular field, wherein a class method comprises one or more of an associated subroutine and an associated function.

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 employing a hardware processor 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 that leverages said class methods by executing the class methods upon object-typed variables to obtain a pseudo-field value, wherein a pseudo-field name is derived from a name of a class method, the class method is executed by the hardware processor and a pseudo-field value associated with the derived pseudo-class name is obtained; and

a user interface module that presents the pseudo-field value along with true 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 derived pseudo-field names and pseudo-field values as if they were the names and values of a true 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 applies matching and/or filtering rules to select a class method for leveraging.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein the debugging module controls execution of the computer program.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the user interface module enables 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 interacts 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 non-transitory computer readable medium strong 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, wherein a pseudo-field name is derived from a name of a class method, the class method is executed on the computer and a pseudo-field value associated with the derived pseudo-class name is obtained; and

present information including the pseudo-field value along with true 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 derived pseudo-field names and pseudo-field values as if they were the names and values of a true 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.