System and method for enabling tracing of program execution in an object-oriented system

摘要

A system and method for enabling a tracing of program execution within an object-oriented programming language environment. A new tracing class is created which is derived from the original class. When tracing is desired, a user creates instances of the tracing subclass instead of the original class and this instance is used in place of the original object. When tracing is not desired, a user merely creates and uses an instance of the original class. The new tracing subclass incorporates "print" statements, which permit observation of the control of code flow within the object.