View program flow and calls to help understand code?

[SteveHatcher 1]

I am trying to understand some relatively simple Delphi code for a GUI and am wondering if there is any tool which can tell me what which classes call what, and when etc. (Delphi 10.4 Community Edition.)

I have looked at class explorer and Model View, but they both show just the classes (and hierarchies) which are used, not necessarily when one calls another.

What I am after is something generated that would look as follows (just making this up):

 

ObjectA

  ObjectA.Prop1

  ObjectA.Prop1.doesSomething

ObjectA.ButtonClick

  tmpObjectCreate

  tmpObjectCreate.Prop1.doesSomethingElse

ObjectA.CallSomeMethod

 

Sort of what you might get from adding a breakpoint and steeping through line by line, but wondering if there is any way to generate this automatically?  

This might not exist but would love some input.
Thanks

[chkaufmann 17]

You may add debug messages in your code (see OutputDebugString).

 

Personally I wrote a wrapper arround this method and with each call I add an id. At the start of my application I set a list of ids and then only messages with these ids are sent to the event log:

procedure TBSDebug.Message(const AMessage: String; ALogId: Integer);
begin
  if FLogIds.Contains(ALogId)
    then OutputDebugString(PChar(AMessage));
end;

 

Christian

[dummzeuch 1387]

1 hour ago, SteveHatcher said:

Sort of what you might get from adding a breakpoint and steeping through line by line, but wondering if there is any way to generate this automatically?  

This might not exist but would love some input.

When I looked at the source code of the Delphi Code Coverage tool some time ago I thought that it could be used to do exactly this: Create a trace of the code execution. It doesn't do that out of the box but it should be possible to use the source code as the base for such a tool.

 

Background: Delphi Code Coverage starts the executable as a debugger. It analyses the map file to create breakpoints for each executable line and then runs the program until it finishes. During that time it logs any callback it receives from Windows when a breakpoint is being hit. That data is later used to generate an overview of the source lines that were actually executed.

 

If that sounds like it could be used to generate a trace, that's exactly my thought. I would love to give it a try but I doubt that I will find the time.

[PeterBelow 218]

8 hours ago, SteveHatcher said:

I am trying to understand some relatively simple Delphi code for a GUI and am wondering if there is any tool which can tell me what which classes call what, and when etc. (Delphi 10.4 Community Edition.)

I have looked at class explorer and Model View, but they both show just the classes (and hierarchies) which are used, not necessarily when one calls another.

What I am after is something generated that would look as follows (just making this up):

 

ObjectA

  ObjectA.Prop1

  ObjectA.Prop1.doesSomething

ObjectA.ButtonClick

  tmpObjectCreate

  tmpObjectCreate.Prop1.doesSomethingElse

ObjectA.CallSomeMethod

 

Sort of what you might get from adding a breakpoint and steeping through line by line, but wondering if there is any way to generate this automatically?  

This might not exist but would love some input.
Thanks

Pascal Analyzer may be helpful in this context. It is not free but if I remember correctly you can evaluate it for a period until paying for it. Have not used it myself, though.

[Pat Foley 50]

10 hours ago, SteveHatcher said:

 

ObjectA

   ObjectA.Prop1

  ObjectA.Prop1.doesSomething

ObjectA.ButtonClick

  tmpObjectCreate

  tmpObjectCreate.Prop1.doesSomethingElse

ObjectA.CallSomeMethod

That kind of looks like DFM source. If you start in debug layout the Stack Trace and local variables on left slide outs could looked at breakpoints set.  The VCL uses component streaming to build the IDE design window these components are streamed into the compiler to make an executable. 

 

The following example would be pasted on a form.  Click on Button1 and assign a click event.

compile the program.  Copy all the text in memo and paste onto form in IDE design.  Stop the exe and recompile.  Try the Hello button it will be hooked to your button1click.  Note may to remove margin=4 on older D

 

Another feature is using control key down and mousedown on TForm will drill down to TObject.

object Panel1: TPanel
  Left = 380
  Top = 70
  Width = 371
  Height = 341
  Margins.Left = 4
  Margins.Top = 4
  Margins.Right = 4
  Margins.Bottom = 4
  Caption = 'Panel1'
  TabOrder = 0
  object Button1: TButton
    Left = 140
    Top = 250
    Width = 94
    Height = 31
    Margins.Left = 4
    Margins.Top = 4
    Margins.Right = 4
    Margins.Bottom = 4
    Caption = 'Button1'
    TabOrder = 0
    OnClick = Button1Click
  end
  object Memo1: TMemo
    Left = 90
    Top = 20
    Width = 231
    Height = 111
    Margins.Left = 4
    Margins.Top = 4
    Margins.Right = 4
    Margins.Bottom = 4
    Lines.Strings = (
      'object btn5000: TButton'
      '  Left = 140'
      '  Top = 250'
      '  Width = 94'
      '  Height = 31'
      '  Margins.Left = 4'
      '  Margins.Top = 4'
      '  Margins.Right = 4'
      '  Margins.Bottom = 4'
      '  Caption = '#39'Hello'#39
      '  TabOrder = 0'
      '  OnClick = Button1Click'
      'end')
    TabOrder = 1
  end
end

  

[SteveHatcher 1]

Thanks everyone for your advice and input.

Pascal Analyzer (actually Pascal Browser) seems the closest automated system to what I'm after. 

It generates a html report and shows Module Calls and Module Called-By. Definitely helping me understand the flow of the code.

 

 

 

 

[Uwe Raabe 1877]

There is also Undertand from SciTools, although a bit pricy.