Microsoft 9GD00001 manual Setting Breakpoints, 155

Chapter 6: Debugging with Visual Studio 155

Figure 6-5 Debugging options

As you can see in Figure 6-5, there are a variety of options that allow you to configure debugging. The primary difference between project settings and Options settings is that project settings are for that one project, but Options settings let you change the settings for all projects and have those settings, when applicable, apply to any new projects you create. Therefore, if there are default settings you want on all projects, visit the Options settings to set them first. The options are much too numerous to list here, and many of them deal with advanced scenarios that are out of scope of this book. If you ever have a question about whether a capability is available or if you need to save settings, you should visit the Options window to see if that capability is available. Now that your system is configured for debugging, you can set breakpoints and start the debugging process.

Setting Breakpoints

Breakpoints are places in your code where you want the program to automatically pause from running, similar to when you push the pause button while watching a movie with your home DVD or Blu-ray player. Once your program hits (stops on) your breakpoint, you will be able to perform debugging tasks, which could be viewing the values of variables at this frozen point in time (program state), evaluating expressions, or editing code and continuing execution. The following discussion shows you how to create and manage breakpoints in your application.