Run Menu

The Run Menu displays commands for testing forms and projects and for using tools that affect or report on how a program runs. The commands on the menu are:

• Run Project -- Run the current project by calling the project Init Function. The default project init function creates and displays the main form.

  When you run a project (as opposed to running a single form with Run Form), the windows of the project are created in their own window hierarchy (or hierarchies), completely separate from IDE window hierarchy. This is done so that running the project from the IDE will emulate the eventual standalone application as closely as possible for more complete debugging.

  But this also means that IDE keyboard shortcuts are not available while the running project windows are selected, and the entire running project may get buried behind the IDE, since the whole IDE is always either in front of or in back the entire running project. You can switch between the running project and the IDE as you would between two applications, by using the Windows Task Bar or the Alt-Tab gesture.

  The behavior is different when running a single form (with the Run Form command). In that case, the running window will be owned by the invisible IDE owner window, and therefore it can be intermingled among the various IDE windows and you can still use IDE keyboard shortcuts and so on. If you run a project when it is already running, the current running instance is first halted (and its windows are closed) and then the project is run again from scratch.

• Run Form -- Run the currently-selected form; that is, create and display the window associated with the currently-selected form.

  When you run a form, the running window for the form is owned by the invisible IDE owner window. Therefore, the running window behaves as if it were part of the IDE. That is, the window may be intermingled among the various IDE windows, and the IDE keyboard shortcuts may still be used. This is done so that the IDE is still conveniently available while quickly testing single forms.

  This behavior is different from the behavior when running the whole project by choosing the Run Project menu command or clicking the Run button on the Toolbar. When a project is run, the project's windows are created in their own hierarchy completely separate from the IDE, so that the running project will emulate the eventual standalone application as nearly as possible for more complete debugging.

  If you run a form which is already running, the current running window is first closed, and then it is created and run again from scratch.

• Stop -- Stops the running form or project and removes the active windows built from forms.

• Interrupt -- Tries to interrupt current computation. It may be what needs to be interrupted prevents the Run menu from displaying. The keyboard equivalent is the Pause key and pressing it may perform the interrupt.

• Trace -- Starts tracing the currently selected symbol.

• Untrace -- Stops tracing of the selected symbol.

• Untrace All -- Stops all tracing.

• Retrace -- This command on the Run menu causes functions that were being traced when Run | Untrace All was chosen to again be traced. Also, if choosing Run | Untrace resulted in nothing being traced, Retrace causes the last object traced to be traced again.

• Trace Status -- Prints information about what is being traced to the status bar.

• Trace Dialog -- Displays the Trace Dialog.

• Set Breakpoint -- Set a breakpoint at the selected symbol.

• Remove Breakpoint -- Remove the breakpoint associated with the selected symbol.

• Remove All Breakpoints -- Remove all breakpoints.

• Break Status -- Prints to the Project Window status bar information about what is breakpointed.

• CG Argument Checking -- This may be toggled on at any time to check the validity of most arguments passed to non-generic CG functions. This may be useful for tracking down obscure bugs that may be caused by invalid calls to CG functions. Note that it slows down CG somewhat and is therefore not enabled by default. This menu command toggles the value of the *check-cg-args* variable.

• Profile Control -- Displays a submenu with the following choices:
  • Start/Resume Profiler: if no profile has been started, start profiling. If a profile is being run but data collection is suspended (with Suspend Profile), resume data collection.
  • Suspend Profiler: suspends profiling until Start/Resume Profiler is clicked.
  • Stop Profile: stops profiling. After clicking this command, profile data is ready for analysis. Starting profiling again will destroy current profile data.
  • Profile Status: prints information about the profiler (whether profiling is going on, etc.) to the status bar of the Project Window.

• Profile Control Dialog -- Displays the Profile Control dialog, which provides tools for controlling the profiler.

• Profile Results Dialog -- Displays the Profile Results dialog, which displays information about profile data.

Copyright (c) 1998-2001, Franz Inc. Berkeley, CA., USA. All rights reserved.
Documentation for Allegro CL version 6.1 update # 1. This page has had minimal revisions.
Created 2001.12.15.