<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>Eclipse Debug Platform</title>
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">

<p>Provides support for launching programs, breakpoint management, expression management,
and debug events.</p>

<h2>Package Specification</h2>

<p>This package provides classes and interfaces to support facilities common among 
  many debug architectures: launching programs, breakpoint management, expression 
  management, and debug events. An extensible set of debug architectures and languages 
  are supported by the definition of a &quot;debug model&quot; - a set of interfaces 
  representing common artifacts in debuggable programs, which are defined in <b>org.eclipse.debug.core.model</b>. 
  The debug plug-in itself does not provide an implementation of a debug model. 
  It is intended that third parties providing an integrated set of development 
  tools for a specific language will also implement a debug model for that language, 
  using an underlying debug architecture of their choice. For example, Java development 
  tooling provides an implementation of a debug model based on the standard Java 
  Platform Debug Architecture (JPDA).</p>

<h4>The Managers</h4>

<p>The debug platform defines and provides an implementation of the following managers:
<ul>
  <li>Launch Manager - The launch manager maintains the set of registered launches 
    - that is, a collection of programs that have been launched in debuggable 
    or non-debuggable (run) mode. Each launch contains its associated debug targets 
    and system processes. A launch that represents a debuggable program may specify 
    an associated source locator used to locate source elements associated with 
    stack frames for a particular debug session. Clients may provide implementations 
    of source locators, which are generally tied to the manner in which a program 
    is launched.</li>
 <li>Breakpoint Manager - The breakpoint manager maintains, persists, and restores the collection
    of all registered breakpoints in the workspace. As well, it provides change notification for
    breakpoints.</li>
 <li>Expression Manager - The expression manager maintains a collection of registered expressions.
    Expressions are not automatically persisted, but a client could persist its own expressions
    if required.</li>
</ul>
<p></p>

<h4>Launch Configurations</h4>

<p>A launch configuration is a persistable description of how to launch an application. 
  Each launch configuration is an instance of a type of launch configuration - 
  for example, a Java Application. The debug plug-in defines a launch configuration 
  type extension point that clients can contribute to. A launch configuration 
  is a set of attributes describing how to launch a program. The launching of 
  an application is performed by an associated implementation of a launch configuration 
  delegate, contributed by each launch configuration type extension.</p>
<p>A launch configuration may be stored as a file in the worksapce (and shared 
  in a repository via standard team mechanisms), or may be stored locally, essentially 
  making the launch configuration private for a single user.</p>
<h4>New Features in the Debug Platform, Eclipse 3.0</h4>
<blockquote> 
  <h4>Extensible Launch Modes</h4>
  <p>The debug platform supports an extensible set of launch modes. Prior releases 
    only supported two launch modes - run and debug. The debug platform defines 
    an extension point for contributing new launch modes (<code>org.eclipse.debug.core.launchModes)</code>, 
    and contributes three basic launch modes itself: run, debug, and profile. 
    The launch manager has API to retrieve all launch modes, and a human readable 
    label for each launch mode.</p>
  <p>The debug platform has an extension point to support the contribution of 
    a launch delegate for a specific launch configuration type and launch mode 
    - <code>org.eclipse.debug.core.launchDelegates</code>. This allows launch 
    configurations to be extended by third parties, to support new launch modes. 
    For example, a client could contribute a launch delegate that launches a Java 
    Application in profile mode (currently, the SDK does not provide a Java profiler).</p>
  <p>For backwards compatibility, the launch delegate supplied by a launch configuration 
    type extension is used for the launch modes specified by the launch configuration 
    type. A launch delegate supplied for a specific mode, is used only for that 
    mode.</p>
  <h4>Extensible Debug Events</h4>
  <p>The debug platform supports an extensible set of debug events. A debug event 
    kind of <code>MODEL_SPECIFIC</code> has been added to indicate an application 
    specific debug event. When a debug event of kind <code>MODEL_SPECIFIC</code> 
    is created, the detail code in the event is client defined. The source of 
    the event (debug element that generated the event) identifies the debug model 
    from which the event was generated. The debug platform and user interface 
    ignores model specific debug events.</p>
  <p>A data field has been added to debug events to allow clients to store application 
    specific data in debug events.<br>
  </p>
  <h4>Process Factories<br>
  </h4>
  <p>The debug platform provides an extension point (<code>org.eclipse.debug.core.processFactories</code>) 
    for contributing process factories. A process factory can be used to override 
    default process creation for a launch configuration when the debug plug-in 
    creates a new process. A launch configuration can specify a process factory 
    to use when creating a process, via the launch configuration attribute<code> 
    DebugPlugin.ATTR_PROCESS_FACTORY_ID</code>.</p>
  <h4>Launch Termination Notification<br>
  </h4>
  <p>The debug platform provides a mechanism for launch listeners to be notified 
    when a launch terminates. A launch is a container of processes and debug targets. 
    When all of the contained targets and processes terminate, a terminate notification 
    is sent to those listeners implementing <code>ILaunchesListener2</code>.</p>
  <h4>Breakpoint Manager Enablement<br>
  </h4>
  <p>The breakpoint manager defines the methods <code>setEnabled(boolean)</code> 
    and <code>isEnabled()</code>. When the breakpoint manager is disabled, debuggers 
    should ignore all registered breakpoints. The debug platform also provides 
    a new listener mechanism, <code>IBreakpointManagerListener</code> which allows 
    clients to register with the breakpoint manager to be notified when its enablement 
    changes.</p>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>