In DS-5 v5.24, we added the Stack View to the debugger. This view displays stack information that used to be displayed in the Debug Control View, giving two advantages. Firstly, the Debug Control View becomes less cluttered and more focussed: giving better clarity of information and an increase in debugger usability. Secondly, stack information can take a non-trivial amount of time to retrieve from the target: because the Stack View can be closed when not needed (and it’s possible to limit the stack depth displayed), stepping speed in the DS-5 debugger can be increased. This performance increase is particularly noticeable for debug targets with slow JTAG clocks or an extensive stack back-trace.
In DS-5 v5.25 we have enhanced the Stack View to display function parameters and local variables.
Variables marked with a ‘P’ are function parameters, and can also be seen in the extended function prototype information. All the other variables shown are the function’s local variables. Arrays and structures can be expanded to display member variables, by right-clicking all variables can be displayed in the Variables or Memory views.
Retrieving variable information from the target can cause a degradation in debugger stepping performance, particularly for targets with very slow JTAG clocks or a large number of function parameters and local variables. To increase debugger stepping performance when parameter and variable information is not needed, display of parameters and variables can be disabled via the Stack View menu.
For details of other changes in DS-5 v5.25, take a look at Key Changes in DS-5 Debugger v5.25