Home > IT Answers > AS/400 > Good replacement for Xtermin8 debugger?
Lilarose
70 pts.
Q:
Good replacement for Xtermin8 debugger?
Xtermin8, Debugger, AS/400 debugging
We have had to eliminate Xtermin8 on our 400 due to an upgrade. Several of us will miss it! We are not fond of ISdebug.  Does anyone know of a good replacement for this debugger? Similiar? We use Cobol and Cobol generating software.

Software/Hardware used:
AS400, Cobol, Synon/CA
ASKED: Nov 11 2009  7:16 PM GMT
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Geekprime
275 pts.
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STRISDB and STRDBG come with the operating system.
I really like STRISDB but unfortunately it doesn't work with ILE, That's a shame. the STRDBG is no where near as good.
I only use RPG so don't know how these work with Cobol.
Last Answered: Nov 16 2009  3:44 PM GMT by Geekprime   275 pts.
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TomLiotta   15455 pts.  |   Nov 12 2009  2:46AM GMT

I use one of the debuggers once or twice a year. The one I prefer is the System i5 Debugger. But I often don’t have it installed/configured at a workstation, so I end up with the normal green-screen debugger and less often with WDSC.

If you regularly use a debugger and use it from mostly the same workstation(s), maybe the System Debugger is worthwhile for you.

Tom

 

Lilarose   70 pts.  |   Nov 16 2009  4:04PM GMT

Yes, we have the 2 debuggers you mentioned, and they do work with Cobol, we just don’t care for them that much. XTermin8 was more user friendly and easier to read. We’re just trying to find a substitute and wondered about others and what they use. Thanks for the comments/suggestions.

 

Dinosaur5225   10 pts.  |   Nov 17 2009  4:28PM GMT

Though I wish I had something better, I use STRISDB with COBOL. I have found that with interactive programs, I get flaky results if I am debugging more than 2 programs at a time. So if I am working with programs that call several programs, I have to remove a program, before I add another one to the list to step through it. Of course you may not need to step through more than one to find what you’re looking for. Whenever I have had more than 2 programs in debug, the step through/display variables screen “bleeds” into the interactive display and it becomes a real mess to work with/look at. On rare occasions I still use STRDBG and print a paper trace to review logic flow patterns that are hard to see stepping through. But now I am showing my dinosaur scales…I will be following this to hopefully find something better for my own use - so thanks for asking.

 

TomLiotta   15455 pts.  |   Nov 18 2009  4:11AM GMT

…we have the 2 debuggers you mentioned,…

Three debuggers so far. Four, if you count STRDBG and STRISDB separately.

1. STRDBG
2. STRISDB
3. WDSC debug
4. System i5 Debugger

The first two require no extra steps. Debug can be started at any time by anyone with authority simply by entering the commands. WDSC debug needs STRDBGSVR to get the ‘debug server’ started. And the System i5 Debugger requires STRTCPSVR *DBG to get the ‘DBG server’ started. (I have no clue how the designations were decided.)

Tom