Watch Window Introduction

The Watch window is designed to allow you to more easily "watch" those variables, registers, and expressions you want to view often, especially as they change value, by copying them into a Watch or Quick Watch tab in the Watch window. This saves you from having to scroll through a Symbols window tab to view them. Composite variables, including arrays, structures, and unions, are expandable to show their sub-elements.

 Watch window showing data in the Quick Watch tab view

Watch Tabs

The Watch tabs are designed to hold user-specified variables, registers, and expressions whose values are re-evaluated each time the processor stops or is stepped.

Note: In Monitor mode, the target is read without being stopped. In this mode, values do not update automatically. Use the Refresh menu item in the context menu to update values in Monitor mode.

Quick Watch Tab

The Quick Watch tab is identical to the other Watch tabs except that its settings are not saved and its contents are cleared on every halt or stop event. This is of use if you want to see a value only once and it is a complex value (simple variables can be seen in the flyover). Quick Watch entries do not clutter your Watch tabs with extra variables.

General Features

Columns

The Watch or Quick Watch view displays up to four columns showing names, addresses, data types, and values. The Name and Value columns are displayed by default. The Address and Type columns can be enabled via the context menu. Alternatively, the address and data type of a symbol can be viewed via the flyover tooltips, or by selecting Properties from the context menu.

Values

Variable and register values normally are colored black. If a value changes, either by running or stepping the processor or by editing its value directly, then the value is colored green to indicate the change. In addition, register values are colored gray to indicate a read-only register or are displayed as asterisks to indicate write-only registers.

Values can be displayed in either decimal or hexadecimal. Select Hexadecimal in the context menu to toggle between the two. Regardless of the display base, addresses are always displayed in hexadecimal. In addition, values larger than 32 bits are always displayed in hexadecimal.

Adding Watches

Watches can be added to a Watch or Quick Watch view in several ways. To directly enter a variable name, register name, or expression, select Add Watch from the context menu. Drag and drop can also be used to add watches. Names and/or expressions can be dragged in from a Symbols window or from the Code, Trace, or Command windows. Register names can be dragged in from a Register window. The variables in a Watch or Quick Watch view can be reordered by using drag and drop to reposition a watch in the list.

Editing Values

Variable and register values can be edited by double-clicking the left mouse button or by selecting Edit from the context menu. To end editing a value, press the Enter key or select another field. If a value is being edited when either Go or Step is selected, the edit is terminated, the value is written, and then the Go or Step operation is performed. Values can be copied and pasted by using the Edit menu items, by using Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V, or by using drag and drop.

ToolTips

Most items have flyover tooltips that display some of the information available in the Properties dialog box, available via the context menu.

Keyboard Support

The arrow keys provide keyboard support for navigation through a tree:

• The Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys move between items.

• The Left arrow and Right arrow keys move along a particular branch. Pressing the Right arrow expands a branch if it is not currently displayed. Pressing the Left arrow moves the cursor to the first item in a branch; pressing it a second time collapses the branch.

• The Home and End keys move to the top or bottom of the tree.

• The Page Up and Page Down keys move a page at a time.

• The + and - keys expand and collapse the current tree node.

• The Enter key alternately expands and collapses the current note.

• The use of the asterisk (Shift and the number 8 on the keyboard) expands all tree nodes beneath the currently selected note.

Printing

To print a view, select File|Print on the menu bar. The entire tree is printed, but only currently expanded nodes are included.

Colors

Colors can be changed via the Colors tab under Options|Preferences.

Multi-processor

In multi-processor systems, register values and stack-relative variables are always associated with the current viewpoint processor.