The Memory Window
Overview
The Memory Window allows users to display the contents of collected
memory. The Memory Window Preferences controls all of the display
characteristics of the Memory Window.
Memory Window topics:
- Auto Update
- When selected, casues the Memory Window to update the Display.
- Update Now
- Forces the Memory Window to update the Display.
- Preferences
- Opens the Memory Window Preferences dialog.
Like the Register Window, the Memory Window
Display is organized into a spreadsheet. The address of any cell in the
Display can be determined by appeding the row and column headers for the
cell. Optionally, an ASCII display of the memory appears at the right.
Any non-ASCII-representable byte in memory will appear in the ASCII Display
as a control character (a dot, ".", by default). The Memory
Preferences Dialog may be used to alter the appearance of the
Memory Window. Any uncollected memory will appear as "N/A", indicating that
this memory was not collected when the trace experiment was run.
To navigate the Memory Window, use the mouse
and click the cell of interest. As an alternative, pressing the TAB key on
the keyboard will focus successive cells, from left to right, top to bottom.
The focus will wrap from the bottom of the Display to the top.
Clicking the right mouse button while the mouse cursor lies within the
bounds of any cell will allow users to:
- Auto Update
- When selected, the Memory Window will track changes in
memory shown in the Display. Cells in which changes have
occured will be highlighted. When not selected, the Memory
Window is "frozen", representing a "snapshot" of memory.
- Update Now
- Causes the Memory Window to update all the cells shown.
- Go To address
- The Memory Window Display is updated to show memory starting
at address address.
- Open New Window at address
- A new Memory Window is opened, displaying memory at address
address
- Memory Preferences...
- Opens the Memory Window Preferences for editing the appearance
of the Memory Window Display.
Memory Window Preference Dialog governs the appearance of the Memory Window:
the total number of bytes displayed, the size of each cell, ASCII control
character.
This attribute controls how many bytes appear in each cell. Valid cell
sizes in the Memory Window may be:
- Byte
- Each cell is exactly one byte
- Half Word
- Cells are displayed with two bytes
- Word
- Each cell contains four bytes
- Double Word
- Cells contain eight bytes
- Float
- Each cell contains four bytes, displayed as a floating point
number
- Double Float
- Cells are displayed as floating point, eight bytes each
The Format option of the Memory Preferences Dialog governs how the debugger
represents the memory. Possible representations include:
- Binary
- The values are shown as binary numbers
- Signed Decimal
- The values are shown as signed decimal numbers
- Octal
- Each cell is represented as an octal number
- Unsigned Decimal
- Values are displayed as unsigned decimals
- Hex
- Memory is displayed as a hexadecimal number. This is
the default.
The size of the memory window determines how much memory is actually
presented to the user. The total number of bytes shown can either be
determined by the size of the window, in which case resizing the Memory
Window will cause more or less memory to be displayed, or fixed at some
specified number of bytes. By default, the Memory Window shows 128 bytes
of memory.
Miscellaneous memory preferences include the option to display the ASCII
representation of the memory, including what character to use for non-ASCII
bytes (the "control" character). Additionally, users may specify the number
of bytes per row, either four, eight, sixteen, or thirty-two. The default is
sixteen bytes per row.