Turbo Debugger in DOSBox: A Comprehensive Guide

The Turbo Debugger in DOSBox is a powerful tool that allows users to debug their programs and gain insight into the execution of their code. This article provides an overview of the debugger's features and how to use them effectively.

Basic Navigation

When using the debugger, you can navigate through your code by pressing the 'Cursor Up' or 'Cursor Down' keys. The 'Cursor Up' key moves the code view one byte up, while the 'Cursor Down' key moves it one command down. You can also press the 'H' key to display a reference of all keys and commands offered by the debugger.

Available Commands

The Turbo Debugger offers several commands that can be used while in debug mode. These include:

* Pause: Pressing the Alt-Pause-key pauses the execution of the program and opens the debugger window.

* Resume: Resumes the execution of the program from where it was paused.

* Step: Steps through the code one command at a time.

* Next: Executes the next command in the code.

* Print: Prints the value of a specific register or memory location.

Log Files

If you want to save debug messages to a text file for later analysis, you can use the 'logfile' entry in the log section of the config file. This will allow you to review your debug output and identify any issues with your program.

Heavy Debug Mode

The Heavy Debug version of DOSBox offers additional features that can be useful when debugging complex programs. These include:

* Breakpoints: Allows you to set specific points in your code where the debugger will pause execution.

* Memory Breakpoints: Activates when the value of a memory location is changed.

* CPU Log: Outputs the next n commands executed by the CPU to a text file.

* Heavylog: Dumps the last (currently 20000) executed commands to a text file when a program crashes or interrupt CD is called.

Activating Heavy Debug Mode

To activate heavy debug mode, you can edit the config.h file after running configure and define C_HEAVY_DEBUG. Alternatively, you can add the switch '-enable-debug' when calling configure to compile the debug version of DOSBox.

The Turbo Debugger in DOSBox is a powerful tool that offers a range of features for debugging your programs. By understanding how to use these features effectively, you can identify and fix issues with your code more quickly and efficiently. Remember to save yourself the trouble and not try to use the debugger unless you know how to compile DOSBox from the sources.

Turbo debugger dosbox