Debugging With VFP Developer Studio

Debugging is a very pleasant experiece using VFP Developer Studio and its support for Code Tips, Collapsible Trees, table fields, aliased expressions, local variables and all the usual features related to debugging.

Lets take a tour on some of the core features:

Lets open the the sample TestDatabase. It is a simple form that when Double Clicked scan a table coming from the Northwind.dbc database.

Put a breakpoint in the line ? CompanyName either by clicking in the left side of the window (as you did in VFP) or by pressing the F7 Key.

Start debugging by clicking in the green play button or by pressing F5

The project is compiled if needed and started in debug mode: The form appears in screen.

Double click in the form. The IDE will be activated and displayed in the breakpoint you set. Move your mouse over the CompanyName field, it will display the field contents of the current record. That's it, easy and intuitive access to your data when debugging.

Lets step over using F10 it will iterate over the SCAN statement assigning some variables.

Those new created local variables will be displayed in the LOCALS variables window. To view the LOCALS variables window. Select View - Debug - Local Variables or Ctrl+Alt+V.

After a few iterations it will display something like that below

.If you need a custom expression you can add it in the Watch Window. Choose View - Debug - Watch Window or Ctrl+Alt+W to display the watch Window.

Lets add a custom expression by right clicking the Watch Window and choosing Add Watch and input customers.ContactTile.

 

If your move your mouse over an object expression like THIS or any object expression you can see a Collapsible Tree that allows you to easily see the contents of your variable by Drilling Down thru the interface.