An Interactive Graphical Array Trace

Abstract

data structure and its computer implementation. However, in the course of debugging a program written in a high-level language, the user is sometimes forced to try to understand the low-level implementation of his data structure, a task that may well be beyond his ability. In an attempt to obviate this problem a trace package has been written which allows a user at a TEKTRONIX Graphics Terminal to "see" arrays as two-dimensional data structures with rows and columns, and to examine interactively the contents of up to four arrays of any FORTRAN IV program while it is being executed. The package consists of a precompiler and a set of graphical routines, both designed to be fully portable. It has been used to debug programs with large arrays (which a standard line-by-line variables trace cannot comfortably handle).