Patent ID: 7383538

Claim:
A method of tracing the activity of an expression, said method comprising the machine-implemented steps of: (a) receiving, from a user, a specification of a machine-implemented process in which a trigger expression resulting in an L value during the machine-implemented process is to be traced; (b) receiving, from a user, a specification of the trigger expression to be traced in the machine-implemented process, said trigger expression representing a non-executable data value having a state; (c) responsive to steps (a) and (b), monitoring execution of said machine-implemented process without altering a logic flow of said machine-implemented process to detect occurrences of a plurality of references to a location in machine memory representing a state of said trigger expression, wherein each said occurrence of a reference to a location in machine memory representing a state of said trigger expression occurs as a result of executing said machine-implemented process; (d) responsive to each detected occurrence of a reference to said location in machine memory representing a state of said trigger expression, storing the respective state of the trigger expression at the time of the respective detected occurrence of a reference to said location in machine memory representing a state of said trigger expression to create a history of said trigger expression within the machine-implemented process, said storing step being performed without interrupting the machine-implemented process; and (e) restoring the state of the trigger expression when requested.