Method and apparatus for debugging optimized code

A computer apparatus for obtaining information associated with program code, the computer apparatus comprising:

• a programming interface arranged to add a segment of code to the program code, the segment of code including a representation associated with a computation, the representation being arranged to be substantially unprocessed, the programming interface further being arranged to add debugging code in proximity to the segment of code;
• an optimizer arranged to optimize the program code;
• a machine code generator arranged to generate machine code associated with the optimized program code, the machine code including a break point, the break point being associated with the debugging code, wherein the machine code further includes a instruction at the break point location;
• and
• a decompiler arranged to replace the instruction with a branch instruction, wherein the branch instruction is arranged to cause the debugging code to execute.

A computer program product for obtaining information associated with a particular set of instructions, the computer program product comprising:

• computer code that includes a representation associated with a computation, the representation being arranged to be substantially unprocessed, wherein the computer code includes debugging code;
• computer code for generating machine code associated with the computer code that includes the representation and the debugging code, the machine code including a break point, the break point being associated with the debugging code, wherein the machine code further includes a instruction;
• computer code for replacing the instruction with a branch instruction, the branch instruction being arranged to cause the debugging code to execute, wherein causing the debugging code to execute provides information associated with the representation;
• and
• a computer-readable medium that stores the program codes.

A computer-implemented method for debugging optimized code, the computer-implemented method comprising:

• generating a higher-level program representation, the higher-level program representation including a loop section, the loop section having an associated counter value, wherein the loop section includes a segment of break point code;
• optimizing the higher-level program representation, wherein optimizing the higher-level program representation includes converting the higher-level program representation into lower-level code, the lower-level code including a section associated with the debugging code and a instruction;
• replacing the instruction with a branch instruction, branch instruction being arranged to cause the section associated with the debugging code to execute;
• and
• executing the branch instruction, wherein executing branch instruction causes the section associated with the debugging code to execute and to provide information associated with the counter value.