CodeView

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CodeView was a standalone debugger created by David Norris at Microsoft in 1985 as part of its development toolset. It originally shipped with Microsoft C 4.0 and later. It also shipped with Visual Basic for MS-DOS, Microsoft Basic PDS, and a number of other Microsoft language products. It was one of the first debuggers on the MS-DOS platform that was full-screen oriented, rather than line oriented (like its predecessors DEBUG.COM and symdeb).

When running, CodeView would present the user with several windows that could be tiled, moved, and otherwise manipulated. Some of the windows were:

• Code window - the code window showed the currently debugged code in its source code context.
• Data window - a hexadecimal dump of a user-specified memory area.
• Command window - user commands (using the same or similar syntax as DEBUG.COM and symdeb) could be entered here.

Upon the release of Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0, the functionality of CodeView was integrated into a single programming environment, known as the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) (though CodeView was still available in the 16-bit versions of Visual C++). QuickC and a number of other development tools in the 'Quick' series also did this. This integration is seen by many developers as a more natural way of developing software since coding and debugging can be done without switching programs or context.

This integration is so popular that most development tools and/or platforms offer similar products or features. Today, the debugger is considered an integrated and essential part of the Microsoft Visual Studio family of products.