ANNOUNCE: DTraq 0.986a now Available

ANNOUNCE: DTraq 0.986a now Available

[Marc A. Criley]

McKae Technologies announces the release of version 0.986a of DTraq, an 
Ada 95 data logging and review tool.

DTraq is a data logging and playback debugging tool providing near 
realtime data logging and analysis to aid debugging and validation. 
Captured, or 'tapped' data from a program can be viewed live while the 
program is running or, since it is being logged to a file, played back 
or printed out later for off-line review and analysis.

DTraq differs from other logging and playback tools in that no data 
layout maps or byte interpretations or "data dumpers" need to be 
manually created.  Nor is the application responsible for converting the 
raw binary data to text form before logging it. DTraq handles all 
conversion automatically by scanning the application's source code, 
identifying tapped data items, and extracting the information it needs 
to properly convert and display the logged items-simple scalar items as 
well as arrays and records. When the layout of data items change, 
rescanning automatically picks up the changes.

DTraq requires GNAT 3.15p due to its reliance on the Ada Semantic 
Interface Specification (ASIS) and has been validated on Red Hat 9 Linux.

Source and executables are available on the DTraq home page:
http://www.mckae.com/dtraq.html, along with the comprehensive and 
up-to-date user manual -- http://www.mckae.com/dtq_common/DTraq.pdf.

DTraq usage is described, and screenshots provided, starting at
http://www.mckae.com/dtq_usage/tapping.html.

Updates to DTraq 0.986a (versus 0.986):

- Added a Data Item Reviewing capability to live data monitoring to 
permit quick reviewing of recently logged and displayed data items. 
This eliminates the need to stow the current logfile, suspend logging, 
and go into playback mode to just look back at a recently received item.

- Reverted the DTraq.Tap tap ID type back to the standard Positive type.

- Cleaned up version handling.

Enjoy!

Marc A. Criley
McKae Technologies
mcNOSPAM@mckae.com

Re: ANNOUNCE: DTraq 0.986a now Available

[Duncan Sands]

Hi Marc, looks nice.  Can you tap types with discriminants?

Thanks,

Duncan.

Re: ANNOUNCE: DTraq 0.986a now Available

[Marc A. Criley]

Duncan Sands wrote:
> Hi Marc, looks nice.  Can you tap types with discriminants?

Unfortunately no; that's been on my list of enhancements for quite some 
time (along with adding support for abstract and tagged types), but I 
haven't had the time to get to it. DTraq can only tap types that are 
fixed in size and layout, i.e., scalars, arrays, and simple records.

The workaround for this, which I admit is a kludge, is to define one or 
more "tap records" of a fixed layout, which you'd then populate with 
data from the variant record while you're executing, and then tap 
instances of those records.

Marc