Visual Basic IDE Tracing

The Visual Basic Integrated Development Environment (IDE) provides the Visual Basic programmer with a vast array of tools for creating, unit testing and debugging applications. To achieve rapid development of solid code requires programmers to both master the IDE and apply good development technique. Programmers must therefore be expected to take full advantage of the Visual Basic IDE's capabilities and encouraged to do so.

Single Step To Success

Single stepping through the execution of your code is a sure way of gaining a better understanding of your code and of proving its correctness. Studies show that developers who take the time to single-step through code execution typically produce code with lower defect counts. This is achieved through better understanding and because defects are identified and fixed far sooner in the development process.

Another important reason for stepping through code execution is to ensure requirements of both design and function are being met. IDE tracing serves the purpose of both a miniature code review and a functional test review.

Failing to meet design and functional requirements at time of coding will add delays and costs downstream if not identified and corrected early. Finding bugs during coding is therefore not something to be ashamed of but is rather something to be encouraged and also to be pleased about as unscheduled delays and costs downstream can be avoided.

By tracing code execution within the IDE complex and inefficient code can soon become apparent, as can code which is "working" for the wrong reason. Alternative code paths can also be identified and tested.

Get Immediate Results

The 'Immediate' window of the IDE offers a work bench from which to hand test procedure calls. This is an ideal means of unit testing procedures to quickly obtain results and ensure all code paths through a procedure are executed. Adding debug trace messages (via the 'Debug.Print' statement) can aid verification within the Immediate window and you can also use the 'Watch' window and breakpoints to further verify correctness during execution.

Be Assertive

The Visual Basic 'Debug.Assert' statement is a powerful ally to the defensive programmer allowing unexpected conditions to be trapped quickly during debugging within the IDE. Assertions also help to document the assumptions and expectations of a procedure.

No one has a better understanding of a procedure than the original author at the time of writing. If care is taken at time of writing to trap unexpected conditions and to document procedures with suitable header comments then future developers will quickly identify and eliminate defects caused by any initial misunderstanding of procedures.

Share Knowledge

Stepping through code execution within the IDE represents an excellent opportunity to share knowledge with trainee developers. Whether you choose to explain coding standards, demonstrate keyboard short-cuts, debugging technique or error handling strategy (to name but a few), making time to share knowledge is an essential part of the learning curve necessary to convert trainee developers into experienced professionals.

Conclusion

By exploiting the full capabilities of the Visual Basic IDE, programmers can successfully trace code execution to verify code meets both design and functional requirements. Problems can be identified quickly and early in the development process thereby avoiding unscheduled delays and costs downstream. IDE tracing also provides an ideal opportunity for sharing knowledge with trainee developers.