Views in the debug perspective

When you start debugging, the Debug perspective is displayed, with the views useful for debugging. The default views are listed below; you can display them by clicking Window > Show View.

Variables view

Shows the variables and their content as well as file statuses of internal file names in use on the current or previous line of code. Those which have just changed in the last statement executed are highlighted.

You can configure the contents of this view in Preferences > Micro Focus > Debug, to display values as hexadecimal, for example.

You can change values of the variables in this view. Select a variable from the list, right-click and select Change Value. A dialog box is displayed.

Breakpoints View

Shows the breakpoints you have set, and enables you to set a breakpoint for any program the application calls. You can set actions to take when a breakpoint is hit, by setting the actions in the breakpoint's properties.

You can add breakpoints using the Add an event breakpoint menu () in this view. From it you can select the type of breakpoint to add: a program breakpoint, a PL/I condition breakpoint or a PL/I signal breakpoint. When you select Add Program Breakpoint, you are asked to enter the program name. When you select Add a PL/I Condition Breakpoint, a dialog opens that lets you select from a list of conditions to be notified of during the debug session. When you select Add a PL/I Signal Breakpoint, a dialog opens that lets you select from a list of signals to be notified of during the debug session.

Expressions view

Shows the values of data items that you choose to monitor, whether or not they are directly accessed by the current execution statement while debugging.

You can also add an arbitrary expression in the view by clicking Add new expression or in the Expressions view. The added expression can be any string, but to be evaluated it needs to be a valid expression.