Interactive Program Debugging

The computer software industry is in a period of massive growth that shows no signs of diminishing as new markets are continuously identified and approached. Currently, the tools and techniques to aid in the development and debugging of software is extremely limited and has not kept pace with the needs of the software industry. Improvements have been made in the software design processes (through formal object oriented analysis and design techniques), performance tuning, and debugging of communication patterns. The basic debugging techniques and process, however, have remained largely the same with little advancement. What few tools and techniques are available to aid in the debugging process are rarely used by programmers due to high learning curves, slow generation of results, lack of perceived benefits, and the inability of the tool to grab the programmer’s focus and maintain it. We are investigating debugging techniques based on interactive computational steering and visual representation geared towards improving the debugging cycle in cognitively based ways such that users will be attracted to the tools sufficiently to avail themselves of the new capabilities they provide. 1