Application Preferences window

Use the Application Preferences window to customize Debugger appearance and function to your needs.

Debugger settings are gathered into related groupings. To see and gain access to all possible areas of customization, expand the tree shown in the left part of the Application Preferences window.

Customization groupings and controls in these groupings are described below. Control group and subgroup names appear in italics, and control names appear in bold.


General General preferences appear in this group.
Pane Behavior Determines how panes are displayed in the Debugger.
Show title bars If you select this check box, each pane in the Debugger is identified by a title bar at the top of the pane.
Highlight selected pane If you select this check box, the currently selected pane is identified by highlighting emphasis applied to its borders.
Pane History Cache Size Enter an integer value to increase or decrease the size of the pane history cache.
Show logo at startup If you select this check box, the IBM Distributed Debugger logo appears while the Debugger is loading and initializing.

General -> Appearance Change the look and feel of the Debugger user interface.
Family This selection list contains a number of Debugger user interface looks. You can select a Debugger look from this list that corresponds to other programming applications already installed on your system.
Platform Select a GUI style from the selection list to have the Debugger adopt the window control and ornamentation style of the chosen GUI.

General -> Toolbars Configure Debugger toolbar access, appearance, and contents.
Pane Control settings in the rest of the window apply to the pane chosen from this selection list.
Toolbar Settings Settings in this group determine how the toolbar appears in the Debugger windows.
Position Select a location for the toolbar from the choices presented in this selection list.
Behavior Settings in this selection list control toolbar visibility and access for the panes specified in the Pane control.
Hide
Toolbar is hidden at all times.
Show on pane focus
Toolbar becomes visible and active only when the specified (usually Source) pane is selected.
Enable on pane focus
Toolbar is always visible, but becomes active only when the specified (usually Source) pane is selected.
Show
Toolbar is visible and active at all times.
Appearance Select any one of the following radio buttons to control the detail level shown for individual toolbar items:
  • Pictures
  • Text
  • Pictures and Text
Toolbar Contents Use the controls in this group to add items to or remove items from the toolbar.
Available Actions Only toolbar items applicable to the pane chosen in the Pane control appear in this selection list. Selecting an item from this list that does not already exist in the toolbar enables the Add push button and, if an item is also selected in the Current Actions selection list, the Insert push button.
Current Actions This selection list shows all items currently in the toolbar, in their order of placement. The topmost item in the Current Actions selection list corresponds to the item on the left or to the top-most item in the toolbar itself. Selecting an item in this list enables the Remove push button.
Add Appends the selected item in the Available Actions selection list to the end of the Current Actions selection list.
Insert Inserts the item currently selected in the Available Actions selection list to a position immediately above the item currently selected in the Current Actions selection list.
Remove Removes the currently selected item from the Current Actions selection list.

You can also use these controls to rearrange the order in which items appear on the toolbar. To do so, first remove the item from the Current Actions selection list, then add or insert that item back into the Current Actions list at its new location.


General -> Help Controls in this group define browser options and the location used by the Debugger help system.
Help Browser Select a browser preference from the choices provided in this selection list.

When running the Debugger user interface on Windows, the Debugger help system uses your Windows default browser to display help regardless of the setting here.

Browser Location Enter the directory path location where the browser program selected in the Help Browser control can be found.
Open help in a separate browser window If you select this check box, a separate browser window opens for each help item requested. If you do not select this check box, the same browser window displays each help item as it is requested.

Debug Controls in this group define options that apply to programs that do not have Debugger program profiles. Program profiles default to on. Programs that have been debugged before are not affected by changes made here. This group contains the following subgroups and controls:
Debugger Defaults Use this subgroup to define default behavior for the Debugger.
Allow Tool Tip Evaluation Select this option to enable Tool Tip Evaluation. Tool Tip Evaluation provides you with a quick way to view the contents of variables in the Source pane. When you rest the pointer on a variable, a pop-up appears displaying the contents of that variable.
Stop When Date Fields are Accessed (Date Breakpoint) Select this option to have the Debugger stop automatically at date breakpoints.

This option does not apply when debugging on the AS/400.

Add to Program Monitor on Double Click Select this option to be able to add a variable to the Program Monitor by double-clicking the variable in the Source pane.
Show Confirmation Dialog on Exit Select this option to have a confirmation dialog display before exiting the Debugger itself.
Source view Use the controls in this subgroup to customize the appearance of program code in the Source pane, and to specify the size of the cache that holds lines of source code.
Font type This selection list contains the available fonts that can be used in the Source pane. The default value is Monospaced.
Font size The default font size for the Source pane is 12 points.
Size of source line cache

The default value is Small.


Debug -> Profiles (program/file) This group manages the content and save locations for program profiles created by the Debugger. You can also use controls in this group to delete program profiles that are no longer needed.
Delete profiles
Directory This read-only field displays the path location in which program profiles can be found.
Select profiles to delete The control lists program profiles found in the path specified in the Directory control. Select any number of profiles from this list, then click the Delete button to delete the selected profiles.
Delete Clicking this button deletes the program profiles selected in the Select profiles to delete list.

Debug -> program -> Exception Filter
Preferences Settings
ngos400.gif This group does not apply when debugging on the AS/400.

The Exception Filter Preferences Settings group allows you to specify the types of exceptions or the exception level that you want the Debugger to recognize in the loaded program. Every program that you are debugging can have its own settings for exception filtering.

Specify the exception types or exception levels for a particular program by checking the checkbox to the left of the Exception Type description. These settings are saved and associated with the program in context when you click OK.

The following controls facilitate selecting and deselecting sets of defined exception types and levels.

All Selects all defined exception types and levels.
None Deselects all defined exception types and levels.
Reset Restores the set of selected exception types and levels to that which was last associated with the loaded program in context. These are the settings that appeared for this program when you first opened the Application Preferences window.
Default ngaix.gif (307 bytes)ngwin.gif (301 bytes) Restores the selected exception types to the factory-defined defaults.

ng390.gif (283 bytes) Restores the selected exception levels or exception types to the factory-defined defaults.


Debug -> program -> Array/Structure/ Class
Element Expansion Defaults
ngaix.gif (307 bytes)ngwin.gif (301 bytes) This group appears once for each program being debugged. In the group name, program is the name of a program loaded in the Distributed Debugger.

For program elements that contain subelements (for example, arrays), you can define how the subelements are displayed in the Monitors pane or the Locals pane.

Use the following controls to define how the Debugger displays subelements:

Starting element Enter the number of the subelement where you want display to start when an element is expanded.
Maximum number of elements displayed Enter the maximum number of subelements you want displayed when you expand an element.
Debugger Defaults If you select this check box, the maximum number of elements and starting element number currently selected become the new default numbers for the Debugger. This new default takes effect when you next load a program for debugging.
Default Changes the maximum number of elements and the starting element number to the numbers defined to be the default for the Debugger.

Debug -> program -> Language: Default Monitor Representations This group appears once for each program loaded for debugging. In the group name, program is the name of a program loaded in the Debugger.

ngaix.gif (307 bytes)ngwin.gif (301 bytes)ngwin.gif (301 bytes) Language is the language you are debugging.

ngos400.gif (278 bytes) Language defaults to C, C++ and Java.

ngaix.gif (307 bytes)ngwin.gif (301 bytes)ngos400.gif (278 bytes)ngwin.gif (301 bytes) For each variable type in the table, you can select a representation from a list of valid representations.

Once set, any variables or expressions appearing in the Monitors pane or the Locals pane will be initially displayed in the representations you selected.

You can also use the following controls to define default monitor representations for the Debugger:

Debugger Defaults If you select this check box, the representations currently selected become the new default set of representations recognized by the Debugger. This new default takes effect when you next load a program for which you have not already set a program profile. Existing program profiles will not be updated.
Default Changes the list of representations to the set of representations defined to be the default for the Debugger.
Debug -> program -> System: Default Monitor
Representations
../images/ngos400.gif (278 bytes) This group applies only when debugging on the AS/400.

This group appears once for each program loaded for debugging, where program is the name of a program loaded in the Debugger.

For each set of languages and variable type in the table, you can select a representation from a list of valid representations. The list of valid representations appears when you click the representation associated with a variable type.

Once set, any variables or expression appearing in the Monitors pane or the Locals pane will be initially displayed in the representations you selected.

You can also use the following controls to define default monitor representations for the Debugger:

Debugger Defaults If you select this check box, the representations currently selected become the new default set of representations recognized by the Debugger. This new default takes effect when you next load a program for which you have not already set a program profile. Existing program profiles will not be updated.
Default Changes the list of representations to the set of representations defined to be the default for the Debugger.

Application Preferences Push buttons
OK Applies your selected preferences to the Debugger, then closes the Application Preferences window.
Cancel Cancels all preference selections and closes the Application Preferences window.
Help Displays this help panel.