A Review of Sinware’s “STEP”

STEP is a program from Sinware. The ad says STEP is the ultimate debugging tool for programs in BASIC. I cannot say if this is true or not, But it sure comes close. STEP permits the execution of a program by several methods. The simplest is one line at a time.

To use STEP, first you load it followed by the program you want to debug. When all is loaded, RUN the program. Only the first line will run. Each time you hit ENTER the next line will run. This will let you see what each line does and also what happens on the display. Press S for the status of the display and you begin to see the advantages. The display shows the last line run, the next line, and the value of expressions. You have to tell it which ones you want to see first. This lets you see exactly what the program is doing and in two different ways for each line.

You can also tell STEP to RUN your program until some condition is true. This can be an expression or “X” times in alLoop. If you write your own programs STEP may just be “the” program for you. The documentation is great–a full 14 pages. It even includes an example program to show you how it works. I can recommend this program to anyone interested in programing in BASIC.