Your COBOL development system provides a debugging environment where the source code of each program is displayed in a separate window.
When you debug the code you can step through it so that each line of the source is highlighted in turn as each statement is executed, showing the effect of each statement. You can interrupt execution to examine and change data items, in a number of ways.
The features available while debugging include:
- Running all or part of the program, and stepping through the program one statement at a time
- Executing the program until it reaches a specified point, such as the end of a procedure or a breakpoint that you specify
- Skipping statements you do not want to execute, such as a procedure call and the corresponding procedure.
- Examining and manipulating data items while debugging
- Examining the threads that are running and switching execution between them
There are a number of ways to debug code, such as compiling the source yourself first or letting it happen automatically or making available the necessary files created during an earlier compilation. For example you can:
- Automatically start debugging when the application fails
- Debug non-COBOL programs in mixed language applications
- Debug a remote program that is running on a different computer
- Debug services and applications that are running on a local or a remote enterprise server
You control the way debugging works by using Debug configurations.
