+@page overview_debugging Debugging
+
+Classes, functions and macros: wxDebugContext, wxObject, wxLog,
+ @ref group_funcmacro_log, @ref group_funcmacro_debug
+
+Various classes, functions and macros are provided in wxWidgets to help you debug
+your application. Most of these are only available if you compile both wxWidgets,
+your application and @e all libraries that use wxWidgets with the __WXDEBUG__ symbol
+defined. You can also test the __WXDEBUG__ symbol in your own applications to execute
+code that should be active only in debug mode.
+
+@li @ref overview_debugging_dbgctx
+@li @ref overview_debugging_dbgmacros
+@li @ref overview_debugging_logging
+@li @ref overview_debugging_dbgctx2
+
+
+<hr>
+
+
+@section overview_debugging_dbgctx wxDebugContext
+
+wxDebugContext is a class that never gets instantiated, but ties together
+various static functions and variables. It allows you to dump all objects to that stream,
+write statistics about object allocation, and check memory for errors.
+
+It is good practice to define a wxObject::Dump member function for each class you derive
+from a wxWidgets class, so that wxDebugContext::Dump can call it and
+give valuable information about the state of the application.
+
+If you have difficulty tracking down a memory leak, recompile
+in debugging mode and call wxDebugContext::Dump and wxDebugContext::PrintStatistics at
+appropriate places. They will tell you what objects have not yet been
+deleted, and what kinds of object they are. In fact, in debug mode wxWidgets will automatically
+detect memory leaks when your application is about to exit, and if there are any leaks,
+will give you information about the problem. (How much information depends on the operating system
+and compiler -- some systems don't allow all memory logging to be enabled). See the
+memcheck sample for example of usage.
+
+For wxDebugContext to do its work, the @e new and @e delete operators for wxObject
+have been redefined to store extra information about dynamically allocated objects
+(but not statically declared objects).
+
+This slows down a debugging version of an application, but can
+find difficult-to-detect memory leaks (objects are not
+deallocated), overwrites (writing past the end of your object) and
+underwrites (writing to memory in front of the object).
+
+If debugging mode is on and the symbols wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS and
+wxUSE_DEBUG_NEW_ALWAYS are set to 1 in setup.h, 'new' is defined to be:
+
+@code
+#define new new(__FILE__,__LINE__)
+@endcode
+
+All occurrences of 'new' in wxWidgets and your own application will use
+the overridden form of the operator with two extra arguments. This means that
+the debugging output (and error messages reporting memory problems) will tell you what
+file and on what line you allocated the object. Unfortunately not all
+compilers allow this definition to work properly, but most do.
+
+
+
+@section overview_debugging_dbgmacros Debug macros
+
+You should also use @ref group_funcmacro_debug as part of a 'defensive programming'
+strategy, scattering wxASSERTs liberally to test for problems in your code as early as
+possible.
+Forward thinking will save a surprising amount of time in the long run.
+
+#wxASSERT is used to pop up an error message box when a condition
+is not @true. You can also use #wxASSERT_MSG to supply your
+own helpful error message. For example:
+
+@code
+void MyClass::MyFunction(wxObject* object)
+{
+ wxASSERT_MSG( (object != NULL), "object should not be NULL in MyFunction!" );
+
+ ...
+};
+@endcode
+
+The message box allows you to continue execution or abort the program. If you are running
+the application inside a debugger, you will be able to see exactly where the problem was.
+
+
+
+@section overview_debugging_logging Logging functions
+
+You can use the wxLogDebug and wxLogTrace functions to output debugging information in
+debug mode; it will do nothing for non-debugging code.
+
+
+
+@section overview_debugging_dbgctx2 wxDebugContext overview
+
+Class: wxDebugContext
+
+wxDebugContext is a class for performing various debugging and memory tracing operations.
+
+This class has only static data and function members, and there should be
+no instances. Probably the most useful members are SetFile (for directing output
+to a file, instead of the default standard error or debugger output);
+Dump (for dumping the dynamically allocated objects) and PrintStatistics
+(for dumping information about allocation of objects). You can also call
+Check to check memory blocks for integrity.
+
+Here's an example of use. The SetCheckpoint ensures that only the
+allocations done after the checkpoint will be dumped.
+
+@code
+wxDebugContext::SetCheckpoint();
+
+wxDebugContext::SetFile("c:\\temp\\debug.log");
+
+wxString *thing = new wxString;
+
+char *ordinaryNonObject = new char[1000];
+
+wxDebugContext::Dump();
+wxDebugContext::PrintStatistics();
+@endcode
+
+You can use wxDebugContext if __WXDEBUG__ is defined, or you can use it
+at any other time (if wxUSE_DEBUG_CONTEXT is set to 1 in setup.h). It is not disabled
+in non-debug mode because you may not wish to recompile wxWidgets and your entire application
+just to make use of the error logging facility.
+
+@note wxDebugContext::SetFile has a problem at present, so use the default stream instead.
+ Eventually the logging will be done through the wxLog facilities instead.
+
+*/
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