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The LA Fox Developer Newsletter
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March 1998
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VFP Tip of the Month...
Try to picture this scenario.., you are sitting at your PC for some 16 hours cranking out code that is far cooler than any code you have created before. suddenly you hit a wall, the blinding bug that cannot be figured out by sight alone. What is the first thing many of the FoxPro developers do to figure out what is going wrong? A fresh can of Coke and WAIT WINDOWS to the rescue! How many of us have resorted to displaying WAIT WINDOWS with values or hit the old FoxPro 2.x and VFP 3.x Debug windows and started evaluating variable values and different conditions? Well there is a new tool in town and it is called DEBUGOUT.
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that is directed to the file also includes ASSERT messages and events that are specified with the Event Tracking dialog box (or with SET EVENTLIST).
The last thing about this command i want to discuss is the abbreviation. Since FoxPro already has the DEBUG command to make the debugger active, the abbreviated command is six characters long, DEBUGO. Sounds funny to me and maybe you see this as a way to add some humor to those hopefully short debugging moments.
[Ed. Note: Rick Schummer is the President of The Detroit Area FoxPro Users Group and can usually be found building FoxPro developer tools, and is always looking for ways to make his job fun and increase his productivity with tips and tricks. You can reach him at 74503.2245@CompuServe.com.]
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Now at first I thought that the Microsoft team employed a little artificial intelligence and figured out a way to know what my bugs were and just get the De Bugs Out. But sadly it is not this easy. By now much of the VFP 5.0 development community is aware of the new and improved Debugger, well at least those developers that have created bugs in their code. There is a window in the new debugger that is called “Debug Output”. The new DEBUGOUT command will display an evaluated expression in this new window. For examole, the following code in a CommandButton Click() methOd:
S
DEBUGOUT “Made it to the”
+
PROGRAM()
+
“0
code”
DEBUGOUT THISFORM.txtCompany.Value
DEBUGOUT SET(”DELETED”)
DEBUGOUT THIS.Visible
Results
in:
This is far more powerful than a WAIT WiNDOW for the simple fact that you do not have to convert the output to character
type’
On the other hand the DEBUGOUT command does not have a WAIT pause built in which can be solved with using breakpoints when needed. The DEBUGOUT feature is designed to see evaluations within loops, or concentrate on the flow of the process.
Other advantages include the ability to divert the results to a file via the SET DEBUGOUT TO [FileName [ADDITIVE]] command. Along with the DEBUGOUT evaluations, the debugging output
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The LA Fox Developer’s Group has entered into an agreement with Macmillan Computer Publishing. LA Fox members can now purchase all Macmillan Computer Publishing titles at a discount of 30% off retail pricing.
Mrncmi’lan owns the following publishers:
New Riders Press
The Waite Group
Adobe Press
Lycos Press
With all these publishers and over 40% market share, Macmillan has the best books for computer technology.
To take advantage of this offer, you must be a member-in-good- standing (read current and paid-up) and have a credit card. You can receive our special account number and the 800 access number by calling me at 800/499-6237 or 714/375-3300, ore- mailing me at CompuServe (72723,3422) or brlee@earthlink.net.
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