The Elf Debug Server

When I know a language well enough to use it correctly, it is rarely long before I begin creating programs that are difficult to debug. One of the tools that I used in Windows to help me debug a program is Ray Konopka's fabulous tool CodeSite. CodeSite is produced by Raizes Software, at www.raize.com. If Ray ever ports his tool to Linux, I suggest going out and buying it as soon as possible because it can be an enormous aid to any programmer who is trying to debug a complex application.

Not even a beta of CodeSite was available to me when writing this book, so I was forced to create a poor man's copy of Ray's excellent program. My DebugServer application can accept messages via HTTP from a client. The basic principle of the program is that you write to the server much as you would send debug output to a text file using WriteLn. In fact, you can use one of the units that make up this program as an easy-to-use and automated way of sending debug output to a text file. However, the more powerful technology in the program enables you to send output to the DebugServer itself via HTTP, as shown in Figure 5.35