Nonnenberg's Notes : debugger

I'm on Channel 9! Debugger Visualizers explained.

scottno — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 04:43:00 GMT

Well, I knew it would happen at some point. Here it is: http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=164928

The topic of the day is Debugger Visualizers!

Chat: The Visual Studio Debugger, December 15th @ 1pm Pacific Time

scottno — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 03:54:00 GMT

The Visual Studio Debugger
"Do you have some burning questions or comments about SQL, C#, VB, C++, or script debugging support in Visual Studio? Want to know more about Visual Studio 2005's enhanced datatips, improved interop debugging, Managed Debugging Assistants, debugger visualizers or Just My Code? Join the Visual Studio Debugger team to discuss the past, speculate on the future, and debate the present of the tool you work with and they work on."

Visual Studio 2005 was recently released! Get your hands on it and all the great debugger features in it today. Show up to this chat and talk to the people who designed, developed and tested those great debugging features!

The official chat schedule entry. The chatroom itself. Mark your calendar with this iCalendar (.ics) file. All upcoming developer chats.

[check my chats category for the next C# chat]

Chat: The Visual Studio Debugger, November 3rd @ 1pm Pacific Time

scottno — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 02:24:00 GMT

There are all sorts of great new Debugger features coming in Visual Studio 2005. Show up to this chat and talk to the people who designed, developed and tested 'em!

The official chat schedule entry. The chatroom itself. Mark your calendar with this iCalendar (.ics) file. The new official C# chats page and all upcoming developer chats.

[check my chats category for the next C# chat]

Chat: The Visual Studio Debugger, September 8th @ 1pm Pacific Time

scottno — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 18:51:00 GMT

There are all sorts of great new Debugger features coming in Visual Studio 2005. Show up to this chat and learn more about 'em!

The official chat schedule entry. The chatroom itself. Mark your calendar with this iCalendar (.ics) file. The new official C# chats page and all upcoming developer chats.

[check my chats category for the next C# chat]

Chat: The Visual Studio Debugger, July 28th @ 1pm Pacific Time

scottno — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 03:22:00 GMT

Everyone has to debug their code sometime; show up and ask a question - you will probably learn something! :0) A debugger session (DEV370) (demos and PPT) was recently given at TechEd 2005 - feel free to ask us about that too! And if you can't make it this Thursday, the C# team will be at the same place, at the same time, two weeks later - they won't be able to answer all of the questions the debugger team can, but they'll certainly know who to talk to...

The official chat schedule entry. The chatroom itself. Mark your calendar with this iCalendar (.ics) file. The new official C# chats page and all upcoming developer chats.

[check my chats category for the next C# chat]

More TechEd 2005 C# Team Content: DEV340 and DEV341

scottno — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 21:52:00 GMT

Two powerpoint files have been posted. The first is the slides for DEV340, a session about the enhancements to Visual C# in version 2.0. The second PPT contains the slides for DEV341, which covers the new C# IDE features in Visual Studio 2005. Unfortunately DEV341 is almost all demos, so the slides will be only marginally useful until the demo pack is posted. Enjoy!

Remember, we'll be at a chat tomorrow about TechEd-and-C#-related things (or anything you want, really :0) ). Check out the above PPTs (and this one too) and ask us questions about them - it will make us happy!

TechEd 2005 Content: DEV370 (with Mystery Visualizer)

scottno — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 03:02:00 GMT

Well, here's the session I did at TechEd. As a refresher, the session title is "Microsoft Visual Studio 2005: Debugging Smart Client Applications with Visual Studio 2005." This complete package has the PPT, the solution and a demo script. Check out the included Mystery Visualizer! The PPT is all flashy. :0) Mmm... gradients...

If you'd like to talk about this session, any of the content, the features discussed (or not discussed), or really anything else, be sure to show up at the C# Team TechEd Wrapup Chat happening this Thursday.

Okay, I can't stand it; I'll give the Mystery away. The visualizer is associated with strings - if the string is a path pointing to a file, it will launch notepad on that file. A little different from your standard viewers, eh? At the very least it's super-simple - about 10 lines with error checking...

[(I suppose this post classifies...) see my visualizers category for discussion/documentation and links to other visualizers]

Debugger Visualizer: Advanced Dataset Visualizer

scottno — Sat, 28 May 2005 01:01:00 GMT

This is the most advanced visualizer I've seen so far. And it's also the first restricted visualizer I've seen: it has an expiration date, and no source code to help you build your own for this one...

With that preface out of the way, let's talk about the visualizer. This is an industrial-strength Dataset Visualizer. Miha Markič has taken all of his experience coding with datasets, and included everything he thought he'd ever need while debugging code dealing with datasets. It results in a user interface which is borderline cluttered at times. But Miha assures me that everything in there will be useful. :0)

Check it out! Or at least check out the screen shots...

[see my visualizers category for discussion/documentation and links to other visualizers]

New Visual Studio 2005 Feature: User-unhandled Exceptions

scottno — Wed, 11 May 2005 00:38:00 GMT

I recently responded to this "bug" on the MSDN Product Feedback Center, but I thought it would be valuable for more people than just "SecurityException" to get this explanation. The situation is this - Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 stopped the debuggee and showed an exception dialog when an exception was thrown from an asynchronously-called delegate. Why is this? When it's run outside the debugger, everything works fine.

Well, the simple answer is that everything is still fine. And even better, let's all repeat together: "it's not a bug, it's a feature." :0)

The thing that has changed since the last version of Visual Studio is that, by default, we will break execution and show exception information in cases where there isn't necessarily anything bad going on. The most common of these is something we call a "user-unhandled" exception.

To fully explain how this works I'll first have to explain a new feature called Just My Code. We use a heuristic to determine if a given module (see Debug->Windows->Modules Window) is "user code" or not - if we have symbols (a .PDB file) for the module and it is unoptimized then it's user code. If it is determined to be user code, we'll step through it, hit breakpoints in it, etc. Otherwise we won't. This makes it possible, for example, to step between event handlers in a WinForms app, but it will prevent you from debugging the framework (you'll have to turn off the feature for that: Tools->Options->Debugging->General->Enable Just My Code).

With that in mind, let's talk about "user-unhandled" exceptions. If an exception is thrown and passes through user frames but is then not caught by user code, it is considered "user-unhandled." In SecurityException's specific case it was caught by the .NET framework infrastructure around asynchronous delegate calls. In some cases this is a bad thing, in others it isn't. So the debugger will tell you about it, but it behaves like a first-chance exception - press F5 and your program continues on its merry way. Or you can click "edit code" in the Exception Assistant (or unwind via the callstack - both of these reset the program to its state just before the call the caused the exception) and do some Edit and Continue to solve the problem. The choice is yours.

Of course, if you really don't want to hear about these events, you can go to Debug->Exceptions and deselect the "user-unhandled" column.

Hopefully you find this feature useful. Let me know what you think!

Chat: The Visual Studio Debugger, May 19th @ 1pm Pacific Time

scottno — Tue, 10 May 2005 20:59:00 GMT

Be there! And if you won't be at this debugger chat but you read my blog, that's just weird! :0)

Also: there's a C# chat every other Thursday at the same time and place - be at those too!

The official chat schedule entry. The chatroom itself. Mark your calendar with this iCalendar (.ics) file. The new official C# chats page and all upcoming developer chats.

[check my chats category for the next C# chat]

Can't Wait? Debugger Visualization on VS 2003

scottno — Tue, 10 May 2005 05:12:00 GMT

Can't wait for Visual Studio 2005 to get some rich data visualization while debugging? If you haven't already seen these, check 'em out. I admit that I haven't tried them myself, but people appear to be using them...

XML Visualizer - supports lots of data types
Special Dataset Quickwatch - conquers the infamous dataset

Know of any other VS 2003 visualizers? Send 'em in and I'll link 'em. And don't forget my request for your VS 2005 visualizers...

[see my visualizers category for discussion/documentation and links to other visualizers]

Debugger Visualizer: ASP.NET Cache

scottno — Tue, 10 May 2005 05:08:00 GMT

This was one of the scenarios we brainstormed (how would people use it?) while developing Debugger Visualizers. The ASP.NET cache - a very difficult bit of memory to try and understand. It would be fair to say that it's even more difficult than the dreaded dataset.

Well, Brett Johnson has done it again. I've previously linked to his ASP.NET Control Visualizer, and now he's really raised the bar. Brett's ASP.NET Cache Visualizer will help you navigate the ASP.NET cache as you attempt to get that last drop of performance out of your server's melting innards. :0)

Jump skyward from his giant-sized shoulders! And then send me the results! Link link link!

[see my visualizers category for discussion/documentation and links to other visualizers]

I'll be speaking at TechEd 2005 in Orlando

scottno — Wed, 04 May 2005 00:57:00 GMT

Just added a snazzy blue TechEd image to my sidebar, so I should probably mention that I'll be in Orlando in June to talk about Debugging Smart Client applications.

DEV370 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005: Debugging Smart Client Applications with Visual Studio 2005

Speaker(s): Scott Nonnenberg

Session Type(s): Breakout

Track(s): Developer Tools

Day/Time: Tuesday, June 7 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM Room: S 310 A

Smart Client applications are initially easier to debug than server-based applications, but as they become more advanced so do their debugging difficulties. Learn techniques and features tailored for debugging Smart Clients with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. With streamlined new UI, Edit and Continue, simple remote debugging setup, enhanced data visualization, tracepoints, improved Interop debugging, Managed Debugging Assistants integration and more, Visual Studio has never been a better tool for your debugging needs.

I'm still developing this session, so talk to me if you want to hear about anything in particular, have any great tips for other Smart Client developers, or have any other reason to email me. :0) Check out other sessions going on at TechEd...

See you there!

Debugger Visualizer MSDN Article Update and Webcast

scottno — Mon, 02 May 2005 22:21:00 GMT

The Beta 2 update to my MSDN article on debugger visualizers was published last week! It's even headlined on the C# and .NET Framework developer centers! :0)

There's a webcast on visualizers tomorrow morning. I'm not giving it, but I am signed up!

Debugger Visualizer Target Confusion

scottno — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 22:10:00 GMT

I've seen this idea a few places now:

"Each implementation of a DebuggerVisualizer can be associated with only one type."
"Debugger visualizers for different classes must reside in a separate project."

And I'm really not sure what to make of it. What we call a "debugger visualizer" is a loose constellation of classes working together, communicating via streams and method calls, brought together by a DebuggerVisualizer attribute. It is true that per DebuggerVisualizer attribute, only one target type can be specified. But the same set of classes can be specified in any number of DebuggerVisualizer attributes, and any one assembly can have multiple assembly-level DebuggerVisualizer attributes.

So, to be completely clear: one assembly/project/set of classes can support any number of target types.

[see my visualizers category for discussion/documentation and links to other visualizers]