Using Breakpoints in the Debugger

Breakpoints interrupt execution of your code. The debugger stops before executing a line of code that contains a breakpoint.

Include breakpoints at important points in your code so that you can observe the flow of code or determine the values of variables at a specific point in your code.

Breakpoints are invalid for blank lines, lines that contain only comments, and end instruction lines. If the selected line of the method has no compiled code, the breakpoint is set on the next source line that has code. If there is no source line following with code, the breakpoint is set at the beginning of the method.

You can set breakpoints, including conditional breakpoints, from the Debugger window or from the Jade Platform development environment.

After re-compiling a method while using the Jade debugger, the debugger continues to display the old method source until a breakpoint is encountered in another method.

In the Breakpoints window:

When an enabled breakpoint is set on a line, a red circle is displayed in the breakpoint margin.
When a disabled breakpoint is set on a line, a white circle is displayed in the breakpoint margin.
Clicking on an empty breakpoint margin for a line sets a breakpoint.
Clicking on a disabled breakpoint (indicated by a white circle) enables the breakpoint.
Clicking on an enabled breakpoint (indicated by a red circle) removes the breakpoint.
Right‑clicking in the breakpoint margin displays a breakpoint menu that has the following commands.
- Clear All Breakpoints From Method.
- Breakpoint Options, which initiates the Breakpoint Options dialog that allows you to disable or enable a breakpoint, set a pass count, and set a conditional expression for the breakpoint.
- Disable or Enable, which toggles the disabled or enabled status of the current breakpoint.
- Remove Breakpoint.
The Disable Breakpoint or Enable Breakpoint and the Breakpoint Options commands are disabled if the method has been changed and not compiled or if there is no breakpoint on that line.

When the debugger stops on a breakpoint and the Jade Debugger Breakpoints window is displayed, the breakpoint is selected in the Debugger Breakpoints window.

When a Jade method is changed and saved or compiled, the changes may not take effect immediately if the method is currently executing (on the call stack). This includes changes made by another developer (unless the method is checked out). The interpreter does not reload the method code until all copies of the method execution have exited from that method.

If the method source is changed, depending on the nature of the modifications to the method source, the location of any breakpoints in that method can change - even though the old method code is executing. If execution is halted on the method in the debugger, the old method source is displayed until a breakpoint is encountered in another method.

For more details, see the following subsections.