Patent ID: 8589887

Claim:
A computer-performed method for observing data values within storage locations of a computer program during execution of the computer program within a computer system, the method comprising: a processor of the computer system executing program instructions of the computer program that call an application programming interface of a debug module that registers individual ones of the storage locations with the debug module, wherein the debug module is located in the same address space as the computer program, wherein the debug module is selectively linked to the computer program, depending on whether the computer program is a debug version or a non-debug version, wherein the storage locations are storage locations that store corresponding ones of the data values, and wherein the application programming interface is called in both the debug version and the non-debug version, wherein the application programming interface is a stub in the non-debug version, whereby the application programming interface does not register the individual ones of the storage locations in the non-debug version; receiving requests at the debug module from an external program, wherein the requests specify particular ones of the data values corresponding to storage locations that have been registered by the registering; the debug module retrieving the particular data values from their corresponding storage locations; the debug module completing the requests by sending the particular data values from the debug module to the external program; and displaying the particular data values at a display accessible by the external program.