24.1. Debugging

Debugging applications is the process of hunting down errors and eliminating them. When your application produces output that’s unexpected or crashes, it’s time to debug. Debugging is a process that’s employed throughout the lifespan of your application.

There are several approaches to debugging Flex applications. At the most basic is writing to the Flash Builder console for analysis of trace() statements. These text statements are useful early in your application’s life, but as complexity grows, so will your debugging needs. Beyond simple tracing, Flash Builder offers a powerful debugger that allows you to halt the execution of your application at specific lines of code. This feature lets you step through the execution of the application from the breakpoint and analyze the values of variables contained in the objects that make up the application.