Prioritized debugging of an error space in program code

A method for aiding debugging of program code in a computer system, the computer system comprising an input system and an output system, the program code comprising a plurality of program code statements that are repetitively executed by way of a plurality of execution cycles, the method comprising:

• utilizing the input system to indicate an error variable in the program code, the error variable containing an error value that differs from a first desired value;
• obtaining an error cycle that is an execution cycle in which the error variable obtains the error value;
• obtaining an execution set comprising all program code statements that are executed in the error cycle;
• utilizing the program code statements in the execution set to generate an error set of program code statements, every program code statement in the error set being in the execution set and also being relationally connected to the error variable;
• assigning a priority value to each program code statement in the error set, each priority value indicating a computed probability that the associated program code statement in the error set is an error source of the error variable;
• and
• output system presenting each statement in the error set based on the relative ordering of the priority value of the program code statement to the other priority values of the other program code statements in the error set.

A computer system comprising:

• a processor;
• an output system for presenting information to a user;
• an input system for obtaining data from the user;
• and
• a memory for storing code and data for the processor, the memory comprising:
• program code comprising a plurality of program code statements;
• debug information about the program code;
• an execution system for generating the debug information;
• and
• a prioritizing system, executed by the processor, that utilizes the debug information to perform the following:
• utilizing the input system to indicate an error variable in the program code, the error variable containing an error value that differs from a first desired value;
• obtaining an error set of the error variable, the error set comprising a subset of the program code statements, each program code statement in the error set being relationally connected to the error variable;
• assigning a priority value to each program code statement in the error set, each priority value indicating a computed probability that the associated program code statement is an error source of the error variable;
• and
• the output system presenting each program code statement in the error set based on the relative ordering of the priority value of the program code statement to the other priority values of the other program code statements in the error set.