December 96 - MacApp Debugging Aids
MacApp Debugging Aids
Conrad Kopala
While working on Twist Down Lists, a recordable MacApp
implementation of hierarchical lists, I developed several useful
debugging aids for detecting memory leaks and access faults and
managing memory usage problems. Here I describe how to use these
debugging aids for more trouble-free MacApp programming.
In the article "Displaying Hierarchical Lists" in develop Issue 18, Martin Minow
suggests that MacApp offers "flexible libraries for displaying and managing structured
data." I accepted his challenge and decided to create a Twist Down Lists application with
MacApp version 3.3.1. As complete as MacApp is, you still have to test your
application to make sure it works. Among the problems I encountered, perhaps none
were more frustrating than the insidious memory leak and the dreaded access fault.
After discovering the nth memory leak and the mth access fault in my Twist Down Lists
application, I decided that the situation was unacceptable -- there had to be a better
way!