MD: Master Automated Informatics Debugger

A step-through debugger for laboratory informatics rule sets and interface scripts. Press F5 in a rules or script file to walk through its evaluation one step at a time.

Features

• Breakpoints on any line of a RULE, TEST, SHAPE, FILTER, ACKNOWLEDGE or ROUTE block. A breakpoint in a RULE stops on every result that rule evaluates.
• Stepping forward and back: Step Over (F10), Step Out to the end of the current TEST, Step Back and Reverse Continue.
• Variables: each step's outcome, priority and basis; every sub-expression of the rule's SCOPE and WHEN with its value, for example critical_high() = 6.0; the actions requested and their final status; the result and the full specimen.
• Watch and hover: evaluate any expression in the current rule step from Watch, the Debug Console, or by hovering over a function name.
• Test results: at the end of each TEST, its PASS or FAIL lines and the final disposition.

How it works

MD is a replay debugger. The reference engine evaluates the file exactly as its test runner does, and MD walks that recorded evaluation. What you step through is what the test runner computes, stepping backward is exact, and nothing is written anywhere.

Files with TEST blocks are debugged test by test. A rule set without TEST blocks is stepped through every specimen in the demonstration library. Queries and counters print their results to the Debug Console. All data is synthetic demonstration data.

Getting started

1. Open a rules or script file.
2. Press F5, or select MD: Debug this file from the debug button in the editor title bar. No launch.json is needed.

For syntax highlighting, validation and completion, install the companion language extension. The two work together; install only one debugger.

Requirements

Visual Studio Code 1.75 or later.