Debugging applications

In the previous section, we saw how NetBeans provides the easy-to-use features to allow developers to launch their applications, but then it also provides more powerful additional features. The same is true for debugging applications.

For simple debugging, NetBeans provides the standard facilities you would expect, such as stepping into or over methods, setting line breakpoints, and monitoring the values of variables. For more details on these features, refer to my book, NetBeans IDE 8 Cookbook, Packt Publishing.

When debugging applications, NetBeans provides several different windows, enabling different types of information to be displayed and manipulated by the developer:

• Breakpoints

• Variables

• Call stack

• Loaded classes

• Sessions

• Threads

• Sources

• Debugging

• Analyze stack

All of these windows are accessible from the Window and then Debugging main menu within NetBeans.

Breakpoints

NetBeans provides a simple approach to set breakpoints and a more comprehensive approach that provides...