Debugging system wherein multiple code views are simultaneously
Contents
1. first view type of said software code listing of said first file 14 A computer program product according to claim 13 further comprising fifth means for determining if said high est priority view type from said another file is already displayed on said screen and if so updating said displayed highest priority view type to show a currently active code line 15 A computer program product according to claim 14 wherein said prioritized listing of said view types includes a source code listing as the highest priority 16 A computer program product according to claim 15 wherein a view type having a lower prioritization is a disassembly code listing 17 A computer program product according to claim 16 wherein another said prioritized view type includes both source code and disassembly code combined 18 A computer program product according to claim 17 wherein another said prioritized view type includes a com pressed image of said source code listing 19 A computer program product according to claim 18 wherein said view type includes a flow graph of said source code which graphically illustrates said source code 20 A computer program product according to claim 12 wherein said computer program product operates under the control of a debugging program 21 A computer program product for use with a computer system comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium for displaying on2. another file is simulta neously displayed with said first view type of said software code listing of said fist file 3 The method as recited in claim 2 comprising the step of determining if said highest priority view type from said another file is already displayed on said screen and if so updating said displayed highest priority view type to show a currently active code line 4 The method of claim 3 wherein said prioritized listing of said view types includes a source code listing as the highest priority 5 The method of claim 4 wherein a view type having a lower prioritization is a disassembly code listing 6 The method of claim 5 wherein another said prioritized view type includes both source code and disassembly code combined 7 The method of claim 6 wherein another said prioritized view type includes a compressed image of said source code listing 8 The method of claim 7 wherein another said view type includes a flow graph of said source code which graphically illustrates said source code 9 The method of claim 1 wherein the steps of the method are performed under the control of a debugging program 10 A computer system for performing a method for displaying on a screen a plurality of views of a software code listing said computer system including a prioritized listing of view types each said view type providing a dif ferent presentation of a code listing said method comprising the steps of displaying a first
3. view type of at least a portion of a software code listing in a first file stepping through code lines in said portion of said soft ware code listing when a call is found in said first file for a code listing in another file displaying a highest priority view type available in said computer system of said code listing in said another file where said highest priority view type of said another file is independent of highest priority view type of said first file and upon a determination that said first view type is to be i kept on the screen ii removed from the screen and replaced by an icon or iii discarded from the screen and if said first view type is to be replaced by an icon or discarded saving as an object a window in which said first view type is displayed and its contents by recording said software code listing s scroll position size of the window and position of the window on the screen whereby in case it is discarded said window and its contents may be recalled by reference to the file and an indication of view type or in case said window is replaced by an icon said window may be recalled by selecting said icon 11 The method as recited in claim 10 comprising the step of determining if said highest priority view type from said another file is already displayed on said screen and if so updating said displayed highest priority view type to show a currently active code line 12 A computer program produ
4. ORED ATTRIBUTES OF NEW FILE VIEW TYPE WINDOW AND SCROLL IF NECESSARY TO CURRENT LINE AND HIGHLIGHT DISPLAY SELECTED 74 VIEW TYPE WINDOW Re 36 422 1 DEBUGGING SYSTEM WHEREIN MULTIPLE CODE VIEWS ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY MANAGED Matter enclosed in heavy brackets appears in the original patent but forms no part of this reissue specifi cation matter printed in italics indicates the additions made by reissue FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to methods and systems in the field of software programing development and more particularly to a debugging system which provides the user with an ability to display and correct software programs BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Typically a programmer develops and tests a software program for a computer by producing and entering source code into files through the use of an editor program The computer then creates an executable program by translating the source code listing into machine code by running a series of programs which typically include various preprocessors a compiler a linker etc During the conversion of the source code listing to machine code intermediate code listings may be created e g a disassembly code describing subtasks within tasks defined by lines of source code a mixed source disassembly listing wherein both source lines and disassembly lines are sequentially listed and other types of intermediate code structures Editors are programs whi
5. United States Patent ro Pazel 11 E 4 Reissued Date of Patent USOORE36422E Re 36 422 Nov 30 1999 Patent Number 54 DEBUGGING SYSTEM WHEREIN MULTIPLE CODE VIEWS ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY MANAGED 75 Inventor Donald P Pazel Montrose N Y 73 Assignee International Business Machines Corporation Armonk N Y 21 Appl No 08 663 346 22 Filed Jun 13 1996 Related U S Patent Documents Reissue of 64 Patent No 5 410 648 Issued Apr 25 1995 Appl No 07 753 358 Filed Aug 30 1991 51 Mt GM cou beet E DEN GO06F 17 30 52 U S CL ane 707 104 395 704 395 183 22 345 346 364 192 58 Field of Search 395 615 704 395 183 22 707 104 345 346 364 192 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 175 856 12 1992 Van Dyke et al 395 704 5 179 702 1 1993 Spix et al 395 672 5 548 717 8 1996 Wooldridge et al 395 704 5 560 009 9 1996 Lenkov et al 395 704 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Ambler et al Influence of Visual Technology On the Evolution of Language Environments Computer Oct 1989 pp 19 22 SOURCE FILE 2 EE eee DISASSEMBLY FILE N EEN SOURCE FILE N MIXED FILE N EN EN Leonard I Vanek et al Static Analysis of Program Source Code Using EDSA Array Systems Computing Canada 1989 pp 192 199 Jan 1989 Logitech Inc Multiscope Debugge
6. a screen a plurality of views of software code listings said computer program product including a prioritized listing of view types each said view type providing a different presentation of a code listing said computer usable medium comprising first means for displaying a first view type of at least a portion of a software code listing in a first file second means for stepping through code lines in said portion of said software code listing third means for displaying a highest priority view type available of a code listing in another file when a call is found in said first file for said code listing in another file where said highest priority view type of said another file is independent of highest priority view type of said first file and Re 36 422 9 fourth means for determining that said first view type is to be i kept on the screen ii removed from the screen and replaced by an icon or iii discarded from the screen and if said first view type is to be replaced by an icon or discarded saving as an object a window in which said first view type is displayed and its contents by recording said software code listing s scroll position size of the window and position of the window on the screen whereby in case it is discarded said window and its contents may be recalled by reference to the file and an indication of view type or in case said window is replaced by an icon said window may be recalled by selecting said ic
7. am storage device according to claim 23 wherein said view type of said code listing from said another file is simultaneously displayed with said first view type of said software code listing of said first file 25 A program storage device according to claim 24 further comprising the step of determining if said highest priority view type from said another file is already displayed on said screen and if so updating said displayed highest priority view type to show a currently active code line 26 A program storage device according to claim 25 wherein said prioritized listing of said view types includes a source code listing as the highest priority 10 15 20 25 30 40 45 50 10 27 A program storage device according to claim 26 wherein a view type having a lower prioritization is a disassembly code listing 28 A program storage device according to claim 27 wherein another said prioritized view type includes both source code and disassembly code combined 29 A program storage device according to claim 28 wherein another said prioritized view type includes a com pressed image of said source code listing 30 A program storage device according to claim 29 wherein said view type includes a flow graph of said source code which graphically illustrates said source code 31 A program storage device according to claim 23 wherein said method steps are performed under the control of a debugging program 32 A prog
8. case said window is replaced by an icon said window may be recalled by selecting said icon 33 A program storage device according to claim 32 further comprising the step of determining if said highest priority view type from said another file is already displayed on said screen and if so updating said displayed highest priority view type to show a currently active code line
9. ce code statements At this stage line 9 in FIG 6 is the active code line and will be executed if the highlight bar is stepped to line 10 If there is no source listing for file n then a disassembly view type is presented instead The above description at a high level indicates the views which are presented to a user as lines of code are stepped in a code listing of a program It is often important for the user to have available alternative presentations of the code listing for both comparison and fault analysis purposes It is advantageous if those presentations can be simultaneously viewed on a screen so as to enable side by side comparison of code sequences A screen presentation is shown in FIG 7 wherein source code listings shown in FIGS 3 and 6 are simultaneously presented for viewing by the user As will be hereinafter understood the invention enables the source listing for file n to be viewed and or for a disassembly listing of file n to be viewed and or for a mixed source assembly listing to be viewed and or for compressed view or flow graph versions of file n to also be viewed In addition in lieu of displaying file n if source file 2 is the only view type on the screen the user can call one of the other view types of file 2 to be simultaneously displayed thereby providing two different code listings for the program contained within file 2 Furthermore as many windows as desired can be displayed to provide furt
10. ch are used to enter or change source code and must therefore have the capability to display the source code for the user The term line of code will be used hereinafter and refers to approximately a complete instruction in the particular code language A line of code will generally display as one line on a user display device A debugging system is a combination of computer hard ware and debugger software which executes a user s pro gram in a controlled manner Debuggers aid a user in identifying and correcting mistakes in an authored program and allow the program to be executed in small segments until specified machine addresses breakpoints are encoun tered or until certain events occur exception events During operation of a debugger the executing code listing is displayed with the active line of code highlighted or oth erwise indicated The active line of code in this instance refers to a line of code which executes its defined function when the user steps to a next line of code Debugging software systems exist in the prior art One such debugging system is described by Vanek et al in Static Analysis of Program Source Code Using EDSA Proceed ings of Conference on Software Maintenance pages 192 199 October 1989 Vanek et al describe a debugging system wherein the user is enabled to view displayed code listings All views disclosed by Vanek et al have identical display characteristics Each view can c
11. ct for use with a computer system comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium for 10 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 displaying on a screen a plurality of views of software code listings said computer program product including a prioritized listing of view types each said view type providing a different presentation of a code listing said computer usable medium comprising first means for displaying a first view type of at least a portion of a software code listing in a first file second means for stepping through code lines in said portion of said software code listing third means for displaying a highest priority view type available of a code listing in another file when a call is found in said first file for said code listing in another file where said highest priority view type of said another file is independent of highest priority view type of said first file and fourth means for determining that a view type is to be removed from said screen and saving a window in which said view type is displayed and its contents as an object whereby said removed window and its contents are recallable as said object and when so recalled are displayed on said screen 13 A computer program product according to claim 12 wherein said view type of said code listing from said another file of said third means is simultaneously displayed with said
12. d modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention Accordingly the present invention is intended to embrace all such alternatives modifications and variances which fall within the scope of the appended claims I claim 1 A computer system for performing a method for displaying on a screen a plurality of views of software code listings said computer system including a prioritized listing of view types each said view type providing a different presentation of a code listing said method comprising the steps of displaying a first view type of at least a portion of a software code listing in a first file stepping through code lines in said portion of said soft ware code listing when a call is found in said first file for a code listing in another file displaying a highest priority view type available in said computer system of said code listing in said another file where said highest priority view type of said another file is independent of highest priority view type of said first file and upon a determination that a view type is to be removed from said screen and saving a window in which said view type is displayed and its contents as an object whereby said removed window and its contents are Re 36 422 7 recallable as said object and when so recalled are displayed on said screen 2 The method as defined in claim 1 wherein said view type of said code listing from said
13. ew of a source code listing FIG 4 shows a pull down menu illustrating various Run selections FIG 5 shows a pull down menu illustrating Options available which enable a display priority order to be iden tified and changed FIG 6 illustrates a view of a source code listing from a file other than that shown in FIG 3 FIG 7 illustrates the display of a plurality of source listings and further indicates the various additional types of code view types which can be simultaneously displayed FIG 8 is a high level flow diagram of the debug invention wherein multiple views may be simultaneously presented for a code listing appearing in a single file FIG 9 is a high level flow diagram of the debug invention wherein multiple views may be simultaneously presented for code listings appearing in plural files DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In this description the terms view and view type will be employed A view of a program listing may be either a sequence of lines of text depicting the program listing a graphical representation of a portion of the program listing or a combination of the two A view type of a program is a view wherein the program listing is shown as either a source code listing a disassembled source code listing a mixture of source and disassembled source code a control flow graph or a compressed program view A source view type is the highest level language that is translated to
14. files to enable selection of one for debugging Window 33 enables the user to select one of five listed view types that are available in the system as defined above If the user chooses a source listing and such is not available the system automatically provides the next lower priority listing i e disassembly In window 33 the view types are listed in priority order however it is to be understood that any priority can be arbitrarily assigned by the system user The user s choice of view type for the highlighted file in window 30 is only applicable to that file and to no others Thus as will be seen hereafter if a source code listing for a portion of file 2 presents a call for a code listing in another file the system automatically chooses the highest priority view type available for the called listing irrespective of the view type chosen for file 2 A further window 34 is contained within the Debug Frame and contains three additional user choice fields i e Keep Discard and Icon These fields come into use when one program listing in a file calls a line of code in a program listing in another file A selection of the Keep field results in a displayed view type being retained on the screen while a new code listing view is simultaneously displayed A Discard selection causes the current view type on the screen to be removed and discarded A selection of the Icon indication causes the view type on the screen to be removed fr
15. g the current scroll position window size and its position on the screen The window is removed and a small Icon is placed on the screen instead If Discard is selected the window is saved as with the Icon selection and the window is removed from the screen Before placing a new file view on the screen the proce dure determines whether such a view is already present on the screen decision box 66 If such a view is found on the screen the procedure moves to box 68 where the new file view is updated by scrolling if necessary to bring the currently active code line into the window and the active line is highlighted If the new file view is found not to be present on the screen then the program proceeds to select the highest priority view type available for the new file Generally this will either be a source code listing or an assembly code listing The stored attributes of the highest priority view type are now retrieved and the code lines are scrolled if necessary to the currently active line which line is then highlighted The selected view type window is then dis played box 74 In this manner the view type window displays are managed with a minimum of user interaction with automatic selection of prioritized view types and with window recall ability that automatically re displays the window as it last appeared It should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the invention Various alternatives an
16. heet 2 of 5 Re 36 422 FIG 3 SOURCE FILE 2 FILE BREAKPOINTS VARIABLES FEATURES RUN OPTIONS 40 42 FIG 4 FIG 5 DISPLAY ORD CTRL 0Z STEP INTO CTRL O U S Patent Nov 30 1999 Sheet 3 of 5 Re 36 422 FIG 6 FILE BREAKPOINTS VARIABLES FEATURES RUN OPTIONS FIG 7 SOURCE FILE 2 EE FLOW GRAPH FILE N SOURCE FILE N MIXED FILE N AN U S Patent Nov 30 1999 Sheet 4 of 5 Re 36 422 FIG 8 MULTI VIEW DEBUG SINGLE FILE DISPLAY FILE SO SELECT HIGHEST PRIORITY 54 VIEW TYPE AVAILABLE FOR FILE 56 IS FILE VIEW ALREADY ON SCREEN YES FINISHED NO RETRIEVE STORED ATTRIBUTES 58 IF ANY EXIST ELSE USE DEFAULT ATTRIBUTES DISPLAY SELECTED Pr VIEW TYPE WINDOW FINISHED U S Patent Nov 30 1999 Sheet 5 of 5 Re 36 422 FIG 9 MULTI VIEW DEBUG PLURAL FILES DISPLAY CURRENT FILE 60 VIEW TYPE S 62 FOR EACH CURRENT FILE VIEW TYPE 64 IF KEEP SELECTED DO NOTHING IF ICON SELECTED SAVE WINDOW amp CONTENTS SAV CURRENT SCROLL POSITION WINDOW SIZE AND POSITION ON SCREEN REMOVE WINDOW AND PUT ICON ON SCREEN IF BISCARD SELECTED SAVE WINDOW amp CON TS REMOVE WINDOW FROM SCREEN 66 YES IS NEW FILE VIEW ALREADY ON SCREEN NO 68 SELECT HIGHEST PRIORITY UPDATE NEW FILE VIEW VIEW TYPE AVAILABLE 70 MOVE CURRENT CODE LINE FOR NEW FILE HIGHLIGHT AND SCROLL RETRIEVE ST
17. her debugging capabilities Referring to FIG 8 a flow diagram is shown which presents the method for managing simultaneous presentation of a pair of view types from a single file on a screen Initially the screen displays the current file view type Box 50 for user interaction Subsequently if the user requests another view Box 52 but does not specify the view type the procedure selects the highest priority view type available for the file Box 54 At this point the procedure determines whether the user selected new view type is already on the screen Box 58 If so the subroutine exits and the user must specify a new 10 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 view type Otherwise stored attributes or default attributes are accessed Box 58 and the selected view type is displayed in window format Box 59 Turning to FIG 9 a procedure is shown where a debug action is in process and plural files are involved Initially a current file view type or types is are displayed on the screen Box 60 The user then steps a code line causing a new code line to be highlighted The procedure determines whether the new code line calls for a new file decision box 62 and if yes it proceeds to select one of the three functions indicated in box 64 If Keep is selected nothing occurs and the procedure continues If Icon has been selected the current file view type window and its contents are saved includin
18. ists the source code files modules in the program to be debugged If no source listing is available the debug program can construct a disassembly set of source statements from an object code listing Thus while a disassembly listing will always be available source code listings may not be For instance many programs contain files produced in response to a 10 15 20 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 source code listing but in themselves have no controlling source code statements They are internally produced within the machine for use as an invisible utility or for another similar function In the process of debugging the user views the program on display 18 and steps from line of code to line of code to determine where a crash or crashes occur It is often the case that the user wishes to view a code listing other than a source listing and further wishes to have multiple simul taneous views of the executing software at various levels Such views potentially enable faster troubleshooting and rapid debugging of the software In FIG 2 a view is shown of a Debug Frame wherein menus appear that enable function and presentation view type to be user selected The Debug Frame is a window in the debugger software which acts as the master control for the debugger Window 30 in the Debug Frame provides a listing of files in the program to be debugged A highlight line 32 may be stepped down the listing of
19. le function A B C followed by a conditional call to a subroutine Q if A B Subroutine Q is not present in file 2 It is to be noted that line 30 wherein the call to subroutine Q is indicated is highlighted as shown at 42 but the functions called for by the statement there indicated have not yet been executed That execution only occurs when the user steps the source listing to line 31 As shown in FIG 4 a selection of the run indication in selection bar 40 of FIG 3 causes a pull down menu to appear that designates a number of options available to the user to increment through the code listing In this instance it is assumed that the step indication 43 has been selected by the highlight This indication enables the user to incre ment one line of code under control of simultaneous actua tion of two keyboard keys control and S At FIG 5 a pull down is shown which results when the options indica tion is chosen on selection bar 40 The pull down shows that a display order select function 45 is available The selec tion of this line enables the priority order shown at window 33 in FIG 2 to be revised Referring now back to FIG 3 it is assumed that the user steps highlight bar 42 from line 30 to line 31 This imme diately results in a new file view i e file n FIG 6 being displayed on the screen Subroutine Q appears at line 9 and its initial code line is highlighted followed by its subsidiary sour
20. machine language before the program can be run It will generally be presented as a series of lines of source code statements each line being sequentially num bered A disassembled source code view type is one wherein various subtasks within a task as defined by a source line are shown in an intermediate language in lieu of the source line A mixed source disassembly view type is one wherein both source lines and disassembled source lines are shown together A control flow graph is a view type wherein the software program is depicted as a graphical flow diagram A compressed program view type is one wherein the program listing is shown as though viewed from a long distance away wherein individual lines of text cannot be discerned The view however shows the overall arrangement of the lines of text indentations spaces etc and may in addition indicate a box showing where in the overall code sequence a particular active line of code exists Referring now to FIG 1 a high level block diagram is shown of a data processing system that is adapted to operate the multi view debugging system of this invention An arithmetic logic unit 10 communicates via a bus 12 with a read only memory ROM 14 random access memory RAM 16 and a display 18 RAM 16 contains both the program being debugged its various view types and a software listing of the debug program The debug program is initially operated by a user to compile in RAM 16 a table that l
21. om the screen and replaced by an icon At that time a further view type can be displayed and the iconized view type is again displayable on the screen simply by a selection of the icon by a mouse or other indicator As above indicated views may and will be replaced discarded etc by the user from the screen It is often the case however that the user wishes to retrace steps and to resurrect discarded views In contrast to the prior art this invention enables the user to accomplish this without requir ing detailed record keeping on the part of the user In this system each file has an associated window or windows which in combination with its current view is maintained as an object Thus when a window is removed from the screen its scroll position window size window position and other display attributes are stored By simply recalling the window associated with a file the saved window and its contents are displayed without further user intervention No user initiated editing is required to reestablish a previous win dow s contents Turning now to FIG 3 a representative source code listing in file 2 is illustrated A selection bar 40 runs across Re 36 422 5 the top of the screen and contains a plurality of selection items each one of which results in the display of a pull down window see FIGS 4 and 5 A plurality of source code lines are shown on the screen with lines 29 and 30 illustrating a simp
22. on 22 A computer program product according to claim 21 further comprising fifth means for determining if said high est priority view type from said another file is already displayed on said screen and if so updating said displayed highest priority view type to show a currently active code line 23 A program storage device readable by a machine tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps of displaying on a screen a plurality of views of software code listings said program storage device including a prioritized listing of view types each said view type providing a different pre sentation of a code listing said method steps comprising displaying a first view type of at least a portion of a software code listing in a first file stepping through code lines in said portion of said soft ware code listing displaying a highest priority view type available of a code listing in another file when a call is found in said first file for said code listing in another file where said highest priority view type of said another file is inde pendent of highest priority view type of said first file and determining that a view type is to be removed from said screen and saving a window in which said view type is displayed and its contents as an object whereby said removed window and its contents are recallable as said object and when so recalled are displayed on said screen 24 A progr
23. ontain a subset of lines of the original source program and may show only declarations only statements at or above a given level of syntactic nesting all statements that assign a value to a given variable etc New views may be inserted by logical opera tors The EDSA system further is tied to the program being analyzed since it must have access to the complete details of the program which it in turn represents as a syntax tree and which it stores in a file Logitech Inc 1235 Pear Avenue No 111 Mountain View Calif 94043 markets a window based debugging program 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 entitled MultiScope for debugging the programs written to operate in the OS 2 system program environment The MultiScope debugging system includes both run time and post mortem debuggers which employ either a presentation manager or text mode interface MultiScope has two windows to show program codes One window is called the Source window and the other is called the Assembler window The Source window shows the current code line in a high level language and the assembler window shows it in one of several possible variants of a disassembly view As one steps through execution the current line shows highlighted in both views and moves with execution The contents of the Source window can be changed to show other file views in the appropriate higher level language If the higher level view does n
24. ot exist an error message is placed in the Source window The Assembler window can as well be reset to show a disassembly view of another source file Codeview a debugger marketed by the Microsoft Corporation Redmond Wash runs in a character mode within an OS 2 session window Codeview has two windows to show program code From either window one may see different files in different views source assembler etc However only one of the windows will show the current line i e the active window So if some file view has the current line of execution and it is showing in the active window the appropriate line will be highlighted But if the same view is in the other window the current line is not highlighted In both windows the user may change the window contents to show different file views Both MultiScope and Codeview handle the window per se as a separate object independent of the code view displayed therein Thus if the user closes a window there is no retention of the window and its contents as an object When a user wishes to resurrect the window both the file to be displayed and the code lines to be shown must be remembered and specified Otherwise the window displays the initial lines of the code listing rather than the code listing that was last shown Furthermore both MultiScope and Codeview are limited to two windows and have no capa bility for further views Accordingly it is an object of this in
25. r User s Manual Jul 1989 pp 1 8 23 82 Microsoft Corporation Advanced Programming Tech niques pp 185 205 Jan 1990 Parker Tim C Development Environments Computer Language vol 7 No 5 May 1990 pp 97 110 Primary Examiner Paul R Lintz Attorney Agent or Firm Sterne Kessler Goldstein amp Fox PLLC Joseph Villela Esquire 57 ABSTRACT A computer implemented method is described for display ing on a screen a plurality of views of a software code listing The method includes the steps of displaying a first view type of at least a portion of the software code listing and selecting and displaying additional view types of the software code listing The system includes a prioritized listing of view types each view type providing a different presentation of a code listing When a program listing in one file presents a call to another file the system automatically presents a window including the called code listing with the view type automatically selected in accordance with the preestablished priority listing Windows code views are handled as objects and are thus immediately recallable using a graphical interface 33 Claims 5 Drawing Sheets FLOW GRAPH FILE N aV U S Patent Nov 30 1999 Sheet 1 of 5 Re 36 422 FiG DISPLAY FIG 2 DEBUG FRAME O SOURCE O DISASSEMBLY O MIXED O FLOW GRAPH O COMPRESSED O KEEP o DISCARD O ICON U S Patent Nov 30 1999 S
26. ram storage device for use with a computer system tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps of displaying on a screen a plurality of views of software code listings said program storage device including a prioritized listing of view types each said view type providing a dif ferent presentation of a code listing said method steps comprising comprising displaying a first view type of at least a portion of a software code listing in a first file stepping through code lines in said portion of said soft ware code listing displaying a highest priority view type available of a code listing in another file when a call is found in said first file for said code listing in another file where said highest priority view type of said another file is inde pendent of highest priority view type of said first file and determining that said first view type is to be i kept on the screen ii removed from the screen and replaced by an icon or iii discarded from the screen and if said first view type is to be replaced by an icon or discarded saving as an object a window in which said first view type is displayed and its contents by recording said software code listing s scroll position size of the window and position of the window on the screen whereby in case it is discarded said window and its contents may be recalled by reference to the file and an indication of view type or in
27. vention to provide an improved debugging system which enables plural code listings to be simultaneously viewed closed and recalled It is another object of this invention to provide an improved debugging system which enables simultaneous viewing and view management of different language mani festations of a code listing SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A computer implemented method is described for dis playing on a screen a plurality of views of a software code listing The method includes the steps of displaying a first view type of at least a portion of the software code listing and selecting and displaying additional view types of the software code listing The system includes a prioritized listing of view types each view type providing a different presentation of a code listing When a program listing in one file presents a call to another file the system automatically presents a window including the called code listing with the view type automatically selected in accordance with the preestablished priority listing Windows code views are handled as objects and are thus immediately recallable using a graphical interface DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a high level block diagram of a data processing system wherein the debugging invention herein described may be employed Re 36 422 3 FIG 2 illustrates a Debug Frame presented to the viewer that enables selection of a particular file and its view type FIG 3 shows a vi
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