You do not need Visual Studio to debug code compiled with Gotham. You can use DbgCLR which is shipped in the .NET 2.0 SDK (this will debug any .NET app). On my machine it is at: “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\GuiDebug\dbgclr.exe”. If you create executable files it is easiest to debug them using DbgCLR.

DbgCLR

Debugging in DbgCLR is really quick and easy. It’s not as sophisticated as Visual Studio but a very good second option -- and it free! To debug Gotham compiled ASP it is as easy as:

1. Run DbgCLR
2. Tools->Attach to Process
3. Choose aspnet_wp.exe (the process asp.net is hosted in)
4. Open the source file you want to debug and set a breakpoint
5. Browse to the page you want

The breakpoint should fire. The values shown will probably be enough for you to debug as required. It is quite a strange experience seeing ASP in a debugger.

If the page generates an exception you will probably be dumped straight at the line in question.

Visual Studio 2005

The process of debugging in Visual Studio 2005 is very similar to DbgCLR. Open an ASP file, set a breakpoint and attach to the aspnet_wp process. You can set up projects containing the .asp files which makes administration a bit easier. I have a macro recorded that attaches to the process and bound to a hotkey.

On thing I have noticed is that Visual Studio sometimes gets confused when an exception occurs. It will sometimes report the exception a bit later that it happened. A symptom of this is that the exception is shown but the top of the call stack does not correlate with the highlighted line. The best solution is to stop debugging and reattach.