^{Article written / submitted by Stefan Cruysberghs}

Debugging in Delphi

Even if you did write a program in disciplined, well-structured, careful manner, you probably still need to debug it to find some bugs. Delphi offers great debugging tools and when you know how to use them, you will surely save a lot of time finding the exact reason of the problem.
In this small tutorial I will explain some nice features in Delphi which will help you to debug your programs.

Because it is better to avoid bugs, I will also give some tips for making better programs.

The full article can be downloaded as one PDF document: Debugging Techniques in Delphi and Bug Prevention

Here's the contents:

• Project options - before you can start using the Delphi debugger tools, you have to make sure all necessary settings are setDebugger options
• Breakpoints - when pressing the F5 button or clicking on the left bar in your editor you can add a red line to your source. This line of source will have a breakpoint. When running the program, the execution will stop when it passes the source line. Now you can trace into your source by using some function keys.
• Call stack - the Call Stack window displays the function calls (=LIFO list) that brought you to your current program location and the arguments passed to each function call.
• Local variables - this window will show all local variables and their current value in the current function or procedure.
• Watches - you add a watch to track the values of program variables or expressions as you step over or trace into code.

• Ideas for creating your own debug features
• Bug prevention
• Try-Finally Gotchas
• Try-Except Gotchas

The full article can be downloaded as one PDF document: Debugging Techniques in Delphi and Bug Prevention