The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

March 1998

VFP Tip of the Month...

New DEBUGOUT Command

by Rick Schummer

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.

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.]

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 commu-

nity 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

Special Big Announcement

The LA Fox Developer’s Group has entered into an agree-

ment with Macmillan Computer Publishing. LA Fox mem-

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titles at a discount of 30% off retail pricing.

Mrncmi’lan owns the following publishers:

•

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•

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With all these publishers and over 40% market share,

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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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