Setting Breakpoints

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Breakpoints can be set on source code by opening the source file and clicking on the breakpoint margin to the left of a line of source code. Right-clicking on the breakpoint margin will display a context menu with additional breakpoint operations and options. In Wing Pro, the Breakpoints tool in the Tools menu can be used to view, modify, or remove defined breakpoints. Alternatively, the Debug menu or the toolbar's breakpoint icons can be used to set or clear breakpoints at the current line of source (where the insertion caret or selection is located).

Breakpoint Types

In Wing Pro, the following types of breakpoints are available:

Regular breakpoints will always cause the debugger to stop on a given line of code, whenever that code is reached.

Conditional breakpoints contain an expression that is evaluated each time the breakpoint is reached. The debugger will stop only if the condition evaluates to True (any non-zero, non-empty, non-None value, as defined by Python). You may edit the condition of any existing breakpoint with the Edit Breakpoint Condition... item in the Breakpoint Options group of the Debug menu, by right clicking on the breakpoint, or in the Breakpoints tool.

Temporary breakpoints are removed automatically after the first time they are encountered. No record of the breakpoint is retained for future debug sessions.

Breakpoint Attributes

Once breakpoints have been defined, you can operate on them in a number of ways to alter their behavior. These operations are available in the Debug menu, in the breakpoint margin's right-click context menu, and from the Breakpoints tool:

Ignore Count ignores a breakpoint a given number of times. The debugger will only stop if it is reached more often than that. The ignore count is reset to its original value with each new debug run. Use the Breakpoint tool to monitor the remaining number of times a breakpoint will be ignored.

Disable/Enable can be used to temporarily disable and subsequently re-enable breakpoints. Any disabled breakpoint will be ignored until re-enabled.

Breakpoints Tool

The Breakpoints tool, available in the Tools menu, displays a list of all currently defined breakpoints. The following columns of data are provided:

Enabled is checked if the breakpoint is enabled.

Location gives the file and line number where the breakpoint is set.

Condition lists the conditional that must be true for the breakpoint to cause the debug process to stop. This is blank if the breakpoint is not conditional.

Temporary is checked if the breakpoint is a temporary one-time breakpoint.

Ignores indicates the number of times the breakpoint should be ignored before it causes the debugger to stop.

Ignores Left shows the number of ignores left for the breakpoint, for the current debug process.

Hits shows the number of times the breakpoint has been reached in the current debug process, if any.

Most of these values can be edited by clicking on the list. To delete the selected breakpoints, press the Delete key.

To visit the file and line number where a breakpoint is located, double click on it in the list or select Show Breakpoint from the right-click context menu. Additional editing options are also available from this context menu.

Keyboard Modifiers for Breakpoint Margin

Clicking on the breakpoint margin will toggle to insert a regular breakpoint or remove an existing breakpoint. You can also shift-click to insert a conditional breakpoint, and control-click to insert a breakpoint and set an ignore count for it.

When a breakpoint is already found on the line, shift-click will disable or enable it, control-click will set its ignore count, and shift-control-click will set or edit the breakpoint conditional.