Patent ID: 7895569

Claim:
A method of implementing software breakpoints in program code to be executed by an interpreter, comprising the steps of: maintaining, in memory, a list of breakpoint addresses separately from a program code, such that the list of breakpoints can be altered separately from the program code; comparing a current instruction pointer of the interpreter to test variables, the test variables defining a range of consecutive addresses of instructions in the program code that are free of breakpoints; and when the current instruction pointer is outside said range, executing a look-up function, for searching the list of breakpoint addresses to determine whether a breakpoint instruction is to be executed, at an address referenced by the current instruction pointer, instead of an instruction in the program code; wherein if the current instruction pointer corresponds to one breakpoint address of the list of breakpoint addresses, executing the breakpoint instruction; wherein if the current instruction pointer corresponds to none of the list of breakpoint addresses, updating the test variables.