Visual C++ 6 Unleashed

By MICKEY WILLIAMS and David Bennett

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Authors
  • About the Contributors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • How to Use This Book
  • What You Need to Use This Book
  • What's New in Visual C++ 6.0
  • Contacting the Main Author
  • Part I: Introduction
  • Chapter 1. The Visual C++ 6.0 Environment
  • Part II: MFC Programming
  • Chapter 2. MFC Class Library Overview
  • Chapter 3. MFC Message Handling Mechanism
  • Chapter 4. The Document View Architecture
  • Chapter 5. Creating and Using Dialog Boxes
  • Chapter 6. Working with Device Contexts and GDI Objects
  • Chapter 7. Creating and Using Property Sheets
  • Chapter 8. Working with the File System
  • Chapter 9. Using Serialization with File and Archive Objects
  • Part III: Internet Programming with MFC
  • Chapter 10. MFC and the Internet Server API (ISAPI)
  • Chapter 11. The WinInet API
  • Chapter 12. MFC HTML Support
  • Part IV: Advanced Programming Topics
  • Chapter 13. Using the Standard C++ Library
  • Chapter 14. Error Detection and Exception Handling Techniques
  • Chapter 15. Debugging and Profiling Strategies
    • MFC Support for Debugging
    • Techniques for Debugging Your MFC Application
    • Using the DevStudio IDE Debugger
    • Using Spy++
    • Using the OLE-COM Object Viewer
    • Using the Process Viewer
    • Performing Remote Debugging
    • Troubleshooting
    • Profiling Your Application
    • Summary
  • Chapter 16. Multithreading
  • Chapter 17. Using Scripting and Other Tools to Automate the Visual C++ IDE
  • Part V: Database Programming
  • Chapter 18. Creating Custom AppWizards
  • Chapter 19. Database Overview
  • Chapter 20. ODBC Programming
  • Chapter 21. MFC Database Classes
  • Chapter 22. Using OLE DB
  • Chapter 23. Programming with ADO
  • Part VI: MFC Support for COM and ActiveX
  • Chapter 24. Overview of COM and Active Technologies
  • Chapter 25. Active Documents
  • Chapter 26. Active Containers
  • Chapter 27. Active Servers
  • Chapter 28. ActiveX Controls
  • Part VII: Using the Active Template Library
  • Chapter 29. ATL Architecture
  • Chapter 30. Creating COM Objects Using ATL
  • Chapter 31. Creating ActiveX Controls Using ATL
  • Chapter 32. Using ATL to Create MTS and COM+ Components
  • Part VIII: Finishing Touches
  • Chapter 33. Adding Windows Help
  • Part IX: Appendix

Summary

In this chapter, you were introduced to MFC support for debugging and debugging techniques used for MFC. Here you learned about the TRACER.EXE utility and briefly examined AfxDump. You looked at the MFC diagnostic features, such as Trace Output, Check Program Assumptions, the ASSERT_VALID macro, Track Memory Allocations, Detect Memory Leaks, and Use Object Dumps.

You also examined the DevStudio IDE debugger. You learned about the two main compiler configurations, Debug and Release mode, and saw how each builds executables that are customized to each of the configurations. An executable built in the Debug mode was slow but contained debugger information and thus could easily be debugged. The Release mode build was fast but not suited for debugging. You saw how to build the same project with both configurations.

Further on, you saw the characteristics of compiler warning messages and how to set them. You also learned that the Source Browser tool is a great tool for inspecting source code in detail.

Each of the debugger windows was discussed, and you saw how to watch variables using the Variables window and the Watch window. You also examined the role of each of the following: the Call Stack window, Disassembly window, Registers window, QuickWatch window, and Memory window.

Spy++ and its features were introduced, as well as its many views and characteristics.

You saw how to attach to running processes within DevStudio to perform debugging.

You took a look at the Dr. Watson utility, and you saw the best way to set it up to capture and diagnose program and system crashes.

Many methods of debugging and the tools to use with Visual C++ 6.0 were covered here. You now should have enough information to debug your applications more effectively using any of the techniques covered in this chapter.

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