Debugging Ada

The complexity of the Ada language poses several problems for the builder of a debugger. We identify the Ada language constructs that cause these problems and propose solutions that can be incorporated in a debugger based on Pascal. Several of the solutions involve changes in the symbol table of the Ada compiler, others are based on the argument that having to obey the language rules is an obstacle when debugging programs. This research was sponsored in part by Siemens Corporate Research & Support, Research & Technology Laboratories, Princeton, New Jersey and in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD), ARPA Order No. 3597, monitored by the Air Force Avionics Laboratory Under Contract F33615-81-K-1539. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the author and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of Siemens Corporate Research and Support, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or the US Government. Table of