uVision Watch List Bug

Hi there,

I have a little annoyance that I would love to find a work around for. When I start a debug session using the simulator, the watch list does not always have all the variables I added to it in there. It seems the last ones added are sometimes lost. Sometimes if I add the same variable three or four times in the list, maybe one of them is remembered next time I start a debug session. It is pretty frustrating having to add your variables back every time.

I am using an older version of uVision (V3.21) so this may have been resolved years ago. But, if anybody has seen this problem or has a work around I would appreciate some help. Does anyone know where the watch list items are stored, maybe the file is gammy. This problem seems to have got worse over the last year as it only occasionally forgot variables, now it always does!!!

 RE: uVision Watch List Bug

I have made a discovery... It seems that the watch list has no problem remembering global things like registers R0, R1 etc. and public variables. It does not seem to work for any not public variables. Note that this is an entirely assembly language project.

Any ideas why it wont remember the names of local variables. Maybe it purges the names of symbols it cant find at the start of debugging? When you type in a random name you know doesn't exist into the watch list, it allows it but shows the value as ????? That random named item is also gone next time you start debugging...

Any ideas please...

 'remembering' local variables

is, probably, deliberately excluded because of the habit many have which is to have e.g. 'index' as a local variable in several different routines. Thus when you come in again the debugger must ask itself "which darn routine did this refer to?".

Erik

 RE: uVision Watch List Bug

Note that this is an entirely assembly language project.

Hmm... that's not making much sense --- assembly language doesn't even really have variables, much less local ones. Which begs the question: what were you showing in that watch window, actually?

 RE: uVision Watch List Bug

I guess I probably used the term "local" too loosely. By local I mean file scope (not function scope as in C). You can declare variables eg SomeVar dsb 1. They have a memory location and a type. You can also make them public or global allowing them to be used in other files (by putting extern SomeVar:byte) in the other file.

It seems that any variable (symbol) made public (or perhaps declared extern) is remembered by the watch list. Any that are only used inside a single file are not.

If you add not public (local) variable to the watchlist while stepping through code in a different file it shows ??????? for the value. Once you step into code in the same file as the variable the watch list value becomes valid. It then keeps working perfectly once you go back to stepping through code in a different file. I guess once it has picked up its memory location it is then OK.

Got to admit this is a huge pain in the bum! I don't want to make all my variables public just for the sake of the IDE!

 static?

If you add not public (local) variable to the watchlist while stepping through code in a different file it shows ??????? for the value
static?
static ... .... with file scope works fine here

Erik

 RE: static?

static is not a A166 keyword right??? I still haven't found a workaround for this but have also noticed that the same symbols that get lost out of the watch list also get lost out of the logic analyser and are not available for use in the command line.

 AH, just caught it

maybe one of them is remembered next time I start a debug session
Keil is miserable in this respect, if you see a variable in the whatch list next time you start a debug session consider yourself lucky

Erik

 RE: AH, just caught it

Haha, good to know I'm not the only one. Do you know if it is any better in later versions? We are considering upgrading but don't really have a lot of reasons to justify the cost yet!