Pre-fill the OBJECT/Program/CSECT and Function or Entry point field in the AT ENTRY breakpoint pane

As part of the review process, we strive to be transparent about our intentions with each RFE. The offering team has carefully reviewed this RFE and has decided that it does not fit into our current plans within the next 1-2 years, so the RFE will be closed. The request will be kept in RFE system and might be reassessed or reopened for additional feedback or voting in the future. We value your feedback and thank you for allowing us the privilege of partnering with you in developing our products.

Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - Development Tooling
Product - IBM Debug for z/OS
Component - z/OS Debugger
Operating system - IBM z/OS
Source - Other

For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - Programming Languages
Product - IBM Developer for z/OS, including Enterprise Edition
Component - Other/Unknown
Operating system - IBM z/OS
Source - Other

Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - Programming Languages
Product - Developer for System z

For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
Brand - Rational
Product family - Design & development
Product - Developer for System z

Thank you for taking the time to suggest an enhancement to our product. Many of our product enhancements result from feedback from our customers, so your input is always very important to us. Your request is currently inline with our product strategy and we have planned it for a future release of the product. Thank you for your suggestion and continued support.

Clarification of this RFE is provided below. The RFE request 60207 directly related to this RFE. I have updated both RFEs with these comments.

If I enter an entry break point using the breakpoint pane, I get the main program name in the Load Module/DLL/Executable, Object/Program/CECT, and Function Point or Entry Point field. I then have to overtype all three names if I want to set a deferred break point for a subprogram. Most, if not all languages do not require the Function or Entry Point name. Most z/OS languages use the same load module name as the program name. So, the user sees this as a lot of extra keystrokes, namely entering the load module name and Function Point or Entry point name, when in the 3270 interface, only the program name is needed. If each field were left blank when the pane appeared, and they entered only the program name, then the other fields could default to the same name. In most scenarios, this is what the user wants. This is the intent of this requirement.

However, let's take this a bit further, as defined by the RFE 60207. If you enter AT ENTRY program in the debug console, all three fields are populated with the same name. Hence, the program breakpoint stops only when the load module name is the same as the program name. If you enter the very same command, AT ENTRY program in the 3270 interface, Debug Tool will stop at the program regardless of what load module name is used. This is definitely a discrepancy between the interfaces, using the same command. So, the correct solution would be when the pane is presented, only the program name is required. The load module/DLL/executable field should not be required, and the GUI stopping with no name, or * entered as load module name. However, when I tried * for the load module name, the GUI failed to stop at the breakpoint, with the Object/Program/CSECT and Function or Entry point field defined.

I would be happy to demonstrate this for you. Feel free to contact me jimrice@us.ibm.com.

Thank you for including a screen capture of the breakpoint dialog.
It shows that you were trying to set a "deferred" breakpoint. A deferred breakpoint is used when the module/program is not yet loaded.
The debugger does not know about entry points for programs that are not yet loaded. Until it reads the debug information it is not possible to pre-fill the fields.

For modules/programs that are already loaded the fields will be pre-filled and they will show you a list of all the entry points that are available.
The entry point field supports typing a portion of the entry point and it will display a list that you can select from.

The following suggestions may help:
1) Entry breakpoints added when a program is loaded and being debugged are saved and will be restored the next time you start your debug session. It will be easier to
add entry breakpoints when the program is loaded.
2) Load breakpoints allow you to stop the debugger when the module you are interested in is first loaded.
2.1) Start your debug session.
2.2) Add a load breakpoint for the module (you can use ABC* to stop on any module that starts with ABC)
2.3) Resume your debug session
2.4) when the module is loaded the debugger will stop. You can now add an entry breakpoint using the pre-filled dialog.

A preliminary evaluation of this request indicates that it is consistent with our business strategy. Further evaluation of this RFE is underway.

Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
Brand - Rational
Product family - Design & development
Product - Developer for System z
Component - Other/Unknown
Operating system - IBM z/OS

For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
Brand - WebSphere
Product family - Enterprise Tooling
Product - IBM Debug Tool
Component - Plug-in
Operating system - IBM z/OS

Attachment (Description): AT Entry breakpoint pane