CS 2301
Lab 6 - DDD, the Data Display Debugger
Objectives
- To gain more practice in debugging
Introduction
One of the most important skills you can learn in an introductory computer
science course is how to debug your programs.
A few weeks ago, we learned how to use gdb, the Gnu Debugger, to
debug our C programs. While gdb is extremely powerful for debugging all kinds of programs in great detail, it is onerous for ordinary users because it demands that you learn and remember a command-line language.
Most modern development environments provide graphical user interfaces to their debuggers. These are vast improvements that let you look at larger areas of your program as a unit, visually track variables as they change, invoke commands
from easy-to-use menus and buttons, visualize breakpoints, etc.
DDD, the Data Display Debugger, is a visual front-end for gdb. It provides all of the power of gdb while providing the advantages of a graphical user interface. You can see your program, its break-points, its status as you single-step, its variables, and important messages. You also have access to a gdb window, in which you can execute a gdb command for specialized situations.
The entire DDD manual can be found at the following URL:
http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~cs2301/d12/Common/DDD_documentation.pdf
This is over 200 pages long, so don't try to print a copy until you really need it.
What you should do...
- Sign the attendance sheet.
- In a window on your PC, open the following URL
http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~cs2301/d12/Common/DDD_Sample_session.pdf
This is a tutorial excerpted from the DDD manual.
- Create a directory in your CCC account to hold the file for Lab 6, and change to that directory now. Use kwrite or your favorite editor to create a new file
called sample.c. Copy and paste the program sample.c from
the last page of the tutorial to your file.
- Compile sample.c with the command
gcc -g -Wall -o sample sample.c
The program should compile with no errors.
-
Execute the following command in your command shell window, and follow the tutorial.
ddd sample
- Finish the tutorial by fixing sample.c, rebuilding it, and running it correctly. When you have finished, turn in your modified sample.c using web-based turnin. The name of the turnin project is Lab 6.
This is the last lab. Good luck on your finals!