All debugger modules installed to NetBeans / Forte should share
actions, desktop and the Debugger window with set of watches, breakpoints
and threads. In the IE multisession debugger implementation they need to
share information about current session / thread. That is why we have the
debuggerCore module, which defines common debugger's functionality and
most of UI. Now we are working on a better support for debugger implementation
modules which do not use watches or threads, and for non-java language
debuggers.
Classes tab (integrated in NB3.2)
Shows all currently loaded classes. For each class shows methods,
static variables and class loader. User could add breakpoint on method
/ class here.
Monitor information (integrated in
NB3.2)
Display information about contended / owned monitors for each
thread so user can easily recognize deadlocks and other synchronization
issues. Monitor information should be accessible in Threads tab in Debugger
window:
Debugger<> Editor & Debugger <> Explorer integration improvements
There are two main places from which the NetBeans debugger is currently
driven: Editor & Debugger Window. But the pass from editor to the Debugger
Window is not very comfortable. For example if a session stops on a breakpoint
- line is highlighted in the Editor - user must find this breakpoint in
the Debugger Window manually, and the same holds for the current thread.
So we want to add:
"Go to Breakpoint" to the editor's popup on the breakpoint line, which
transfers focus to the Debugger Window / Breakpoints tab and selects proper
breakpoint.
"Go to Thread" to the editor's popup on the current line, which transfers
focus to the Debugger Window / Threads tab and expands & selects proper
thread.
"Go to Locales"
"Go to Watches"
We plan to add "Add Breakpoint on Line / Method / ..." everywhere it is
possible. Explorer Nodes of Java DO, editor's popup menu, editor's margin
etc.
Add a special debugger margin to the editor window. It could contain:
Information if this line produces some bytecode.
Shortcut for adding line breakpoints.
Info if this line is currently in some stack trace of some thread + info
about the thread state (like thread waits on this line).
Shortcut for stack trace traversing (up, down).
Filtering of variables hierarchy
The current version of NetBeans Debugger shows all static /
private / ... fields for variables in Watches & Variables tabs. It
is useful when you want to find some implementation details, but it can
be uncomfortable for many other purposes. For example if I am inspecting
instance of java.util.Vector, I want probably see its content
not its serialVersionUID, capacityIncrement etc.
So we plan to add some variable filtering capability to NetBeans Debugger.
Where it can be used:
Default filter: Filtering "static / public / private ... / generated
by compiler / null" field categories.
Collections view: filter for Vectors, Hashtables
...
Component view: if we want to focus on Component hierarchy.
Object view: Shows dependencies of objects (may be from some package)
only. Values of primitive types can be shown as properties.
Beans filter
This feature should be useful for debugging non-java languages too. For
some language compiled to Java may be useful to hide (or rename, represent
in the different way) some variables. Such module should install some filter
to NetBeans Debugger.
Breakpoint Grouping: It is a good
idea to logically organize breakpoints in the case of large projects. Grouped
in a group, they can be enabled, disabled, or removed as a single unit.
A group can be visually implemented by a node in the Debugger Window, tab
Breakpoints. Descendant nodes should represent all breakpoints (eventually
sub-groups) belonging to the group.
Displaying
Integral Values in Various Formats (Daniel Prusa): We support displaying
integral values in the decimal format only. The ability of displaying integral
values in the hexadecimal, octal and binary format can be added. Every
variable can have property "Format" with the default value "decimal".
Configurable
Format of Display Text for Watches (Daniel Prusa): Format of display
text for watched variables can be configurable. The user could chose what
information about variables he/she prefers (name, type, toString() value,
value - in case of primitive type, hashcode, identity hashcode, internal
id, etc.) and in what format it should be displayed.
Predefined watch name (Jan Stola):
When I place a caret on some variable definition and try to create
a new breakpoint the name of this variable is offered to me (so, I can
easily create my variable breakpoint). I think it would be nice to have
the same support for watches.
Property
editor for Print text property of breakpoints (Jan Stola): It would
be nice to have property editors for print text properties of breakpoints.
In the present situation the user don't know which substitutions could
he/she use, e.g. {lineNumber}, {className} etc.
There
should be access/modification variable breakpoint. (Jan Stola)
Disabled
breakpoints could have different icon (Svatopluk Dedic)
Info
dialog could appear when user put breakpoint into white line.
Return to previous
workspace property (Kurt Westerfeld): We have "Global Options/Debugger
Settings/Workspace" property which defines which workspace should be used
for debugging (when debugging starts IDE switches to it). But we do not
returns to the previous workspace after debugger finish.
Use dialog
boxes for breakpoint notification (Kurt Westerfeld): Current version
of NetBeans Debugger uses output window for breakpoint event notifications.
We could add some "Pop-up dialog" option as an breakpoint action (like
"Print text" option - see properties of breakpoint).
Distinguish
between own and inherited fields in variables (Kurt Westerfeld):
Enable
to call some method on variable selected in Watches tab
Call stack view(integrated in
NB3.2):
Threads tab is designed for displaying info about threads/thread groups hierarchy.
It's usefull for inspecting not-current threads too. Call stack tab should be focused
on "current context" only. It should contain call stack of current thread.
Expression view (Jan Jancura, Kurt Westerfeld)
It could be useful to have a new view (tab in the Debugger
Window) which returns variable value (like in watches) for expression written
in some input line.
Alternate visualization tool like Canvas can be useful for
quick browsing on Watches / Locales / Variables hierarchy. It should display
non-primitive object instances only (no int, Integer...) with their dependences
in scrollable view (JProbe style).
Class view
We have an idea to display current state of debugged application
(or part of it e.g. package) in UML style Class diagram.
Skip Filters (Daniel Prusa)
Skip filter feature can allow specify classes, packages, or
class patterns that we do not wish to step into. It is useful if we are
only interested in tracing through our own code and want to avoid stepping
into outside libraries.
