CodeView was a standalone debugger created by Microsoft as part of it's development toolset. It originally shipped with Microsoft C 4.0 and earlier. It also shipped with Visual Basic for MS-DOS, Microsoft Basic PDS, and a number of other Microsoft language products. It was one of the first debuggers on the MS-DOS platform that was full-screen oriented, rather than line oriented (like its predecessors DEBUG.COM and symdeb). A debugger is a computer program that is used to debug (and sometimes test or optimize) other programs. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Visual Basic (VB) is an event driven programming language and associated development environment from Microsoft. ... Microsofts disk operating system, MS-DOS, was Microsofts implementation of DOS, which was the first popular operating system for the IBM PC, and until recently, was widely used on the PC compatible platform. ...

When running, CodeView would present the user with several windows that could be tiled, moved, and otherwise manipulated. Some of the windows were: An example of a graphical user interface in Windows XP, with the My Music window displayed In computing, a window is a visual area, usually rectangular in shape, containing some kind of user interface, displaying the output of and allowing input for one of a number of simultaneously running computer...

• Code window - the code window showed the currently debugged code in its source code context.
• Data window - a hexadecimal dump of a user-specified memory area.
• Command window - user commands (using the same or similar syntax as DEBUG.COM and symdeb) could be entered here.

Upon the release of Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0, the functionality of CodeView was integrated into a single programming environment, known as the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This integration is seen by many developers to be a more natural way of developing software since coding and debugging can be done without switching programs or context. Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... An integrated development environment (IDE), also known as integrated design environment and integrated debugging environment, is a type of computer software that assists computer programmers in developing software. ...

This integration is so popular that most development tools and/or platforms offer similar products or features. Today, the debugger is considered an integrated and essential part of the Microsoft Visual Studio family of products. Microsoft Visual Studio is Microsofts flagship software development product for computer programmers. ...