And to whom we are eternally grateful!

我们永远感激谁！

Debugging is a vital part of programming. A breakpoint — which by definition is an intentional stopping or pausing place in a program — is often key during the debugging process. They allow developers to gain insights into a program’s values during its execution — at which point said values may change to produce unexpected results upon completion. Having breakpoints means the execution will pause at different stages for the developer to inspect a certain value. By having the opportunity to then run each line of code after the breakpoint one by one, it is very easy to spot where things went wrong.

调试是编程的重要组成部分。 断点(按定义是程序中有意停止或暂停的地方 )通常是调试过程中的关键。 它们使开发人员可以在程序执行期间洞悉程序的值，这时，这些值可能会更改，以在完成时产生意外的结果。 具有断点意味着执行将在不同阶段暂停，以供开发人员检查某个值。 通过有机会在断点之后一个接一个地运行每一行代码，很容易发现问题出在哪里。

Every integrated development environment (IDE) nowadays will contain an integrated debugger allowing for these breakpoints to be put in place. And what’s more, it’s very easy to do so! All IDEs I’ve worked with have adopted the same method for applying breakpoints — you click outside of a particular code line just before its number. That line of code will more often than not contain a condition that needs to be met, and when it has been met, voila. Your application will pause when it hits that point — allowing you to look at the current state of variables, classes, config objects, and many more. This is extremely useful in cases where your program is returning an unexpected value. By hitting the breakpoint and gradually executing the code that comes after it, developers can gain a deeper understanding as to where an incorrect value is being set and why.

如今，每个集成开发环境(IDE)都将包含一个集成调试器，以便将这些断点放置在适当的位置。 而且，这样做非常容易！ 我使用过的所有IDE都采用了相同的方法来应用断点-您可以在特定代码行的编号旁边单击它。 这行代码会往往不是包含一个条件，即需要得到满足，而当它被满足，瞧。 达到该点时，您的应用程序将暂停-允许您查看变量，类，配置对象等的当前状态。 这在程序返回意外值的情况下非常有用。 通过触及断点并逐步执行其后的代码，开发人员可以对设置错误值的位置以及原因有更深入的了解。

I find the origins of such programming features fascinating. Recently, I wrote about software bugs and how they got their name. This time, I went back in history to learn about the origin of the breakpoint.

我发现此类编程功能的来历令人着迷。 最近，我写了关于软件错误以及它们如何解决的文章 。 这次，我回顾了历史，以了解断点的起源。

从哪里开始 (Where it all started)

It all started with a 30-ton digital computer and its first-ever programmers. During the 1940s, 6 women were selected as programmers for the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, better known as the ENIAC. Funded by the US military, and designed to help win World War II, it was able to solve thousands of numerical problems and execute up to 5000 additions in a second.

一切始于一台30吨的数字计算机及其首创的程序员。 在40年代期间，6名妇女被选定为程序员为电子数字积分计算机，更好地为ENIAC 。 由美国军方资助，旨在帮助赢得第二次世界大战，它能够解决数千个数值问题，并在一秒钟内执行多达5000次加法运算 。

Unlike the ubiquitous computers we see today, however, the heralded ‘Giant Brain’ was more a collection of adding machines controlled by electronic cables. Its architecture was extremely complex with over 6000 switches through which specific data and coding were routed. Sometimes it took days to rewrite a new program into the machine. Nonetheless, what would take a human-computer approximately 2 years to solve, the ENIAC would solve in just 2 hours. Making it a pretty efficient machine in its time!

但是，与我们今天看到的无处不在的计算机不同，被称为“巨人大脑”的是更多由电缆控制的添加计算机的集合。 它的体系结构极其复杂，有6000多个交换机，通过它们路由特定的数据和编码。 有时需要几天的时间才能将新程序重写到计算机中。 尽管如此，用人机解决大约需要2年，而ENIAC只需2小时即可解决 。 使它成为当时相当高效的机器！

Being the first digital computer in history, of course, it wasn’t perfect at first. There were many technical glitches that the chosen 6 had to solve. It was Betty Holberton — one of the 6 programmers — who realised that it would help to have a moment in which you could stop a program midway through its execution to debug an issue. In the initial design of the ENIAC, the program flow was set by plugging cables from one unit to another. To make the program stop at a certain point, a cable was simply removed. The removal of such cable midway through the program’s execution was named as the “breakpoint” we all love and use today.

当然，作为历史上第一台数字计算机，它一开始并不完美。 选定的6个必须解决的许多技术故障。 正是Betty Holberton(六位程序员之一)意识到，有一会儿您可以在程序执行过程中停止程序来调试问题，这会有所帮助。 在ENIAC的初始设计中，程序流程是通过将电缆从一个单元插入另一单元来设置的。 为了使程序停止在某个位置，只需拔下电缆即可。 在程序执行过程中删除此类电缆被称为我们今天都喜欢并使用的“断点” 。

“Betty had an amazing logical mind, and she solved more problems in her sleep than other people did awake” — Jean J. Bartik

“贝蒂有着惊人的逻辑思维，她在睡眠中解决的问题比其他人醒来的更多” –简·巴蒂克(Jean J. Bartik)

So there you have it! For the first time in programming history, programmers made use of the concept of breakpoints to debug!

所以你有它！ 编程史上第一次，程序员利用断点的概念进行调试！

Now, you may be asking, how does one debug on the ENIAC?! It was engineered in such a way that it was very easy for a programmer to follow its progress or computation. The entire contents of the electronic memory were displayed on accumulators with neon lights. At this point, if any alterations had to be made, they could be made by changing a switch.

现在，您可能会问，如何在ENIAC上进行调试？ 它的设计方式使程序员很容易跟踪其进度或计算 。 电子存储器的全部内容通过霓虹灯显示在累加器上。 此时，如果必须进行任何更改，可以通过更改开关进行更改。

But what about IDE breakpoints? The ones we all know of today. Was there a first for that? There must have been!

但是IDE断点呢？ 今天我们都知道的那些。 是否有第一个？ 一定有！

超越ENIAC (Beyond the ENIAC)

We’ve got things pretty good as programmers nowadays. Before IDEs, programmers would compose all of their code on punch cards which were then taken to a separate compiler to run and compile the code. Depending on priority, the cards could sit in an execution queue from a few minutes to a few days, after which some output is printed for the developer to review. If any errors were noted on the output, the process would start all over again.

如今，作为程序员，我们的处境非常好。 在使用IDE之前，程序员会将所有代码编写在打Kong卡上，然后将其带到单独的编译器中运行和编译代码。 根据优先级，这些卡可能会在几分钟到几天之间排在一个执行队列中，然后打印一些输出以供开发人员查看。 如果在输出中发现任何错误，该过程将重新开始。

I stumbled upon some mainframe debuggers when researching the topic, one of them known as OLIVER (1974), which facilitated the debugging of programs written in COBOL, PL/I, and Assembler. SIMON — used for batch debugging — was another released 6 years after OLIVER.

在研究该主题时，我偶然发现了一些大型机调试器 ，其中一个名为OLIVER (1974)，它有助于调试用COBOL，PL / I和Assembler编写的程序。 SIMON (用于批调试)是OLIVER推出6年后发布的。

As for IDEs, after an intense search for the first one in history, Turbo Pascal — released in 1983 — cropped up a lot as the first IDE programmers remembered. It wasn’t until version 6.0 was released, however, that the debugger supported breakpoints and watches. Nonetheless, it is deemed to be the IDE that paved the way for the ones that followed.

至于IDE，经过对历史上第一个的深入研究， Turbo Pascal 1983年发布的产品，在第一批IDE程序员记得的时候，出现了很多情况。 直到6.0版本发布，调试器才支持断点和监视。 尽管如此，它还是为随后的 IDE铺平了道路。

摘要 (Summary)

It was Betty Holberton — one of 6 women chosen as programmers to execute instructions on the ENIAC — who first coined the term “break point”. This came after the realisation that they would be extremely helpful to debug a program that was running incorrectly. To achieve this, cables were pulled out of the ENIAC’s units to stop the program’s execution, and allow for efficient debugging. Due to the nature of the ENIAC, the entire contents of its memory could be read easily on its accumulators. Thus once stopped, it was easy to pinpoint issues and alter any switches.

贝蒂·霍尔伯顿(Betty Holberton)被选为程序员，是在ENIAC上执行指令的六名女性之一，她首先创造了“断点”一词。 这是在意识到他们对调试运行错误的程序非常有帮助的之后。 为此，将电缆从ENIAC的单元中拔出，以停止程序的执行并进行有效的调试。 由于ENIAC的性质，可以轻松地在其累加器上读取其存储器的全部内容。 因此，一旦停止，就很容易查明问题并更改任何开关。

38 years later, Turbo Pascal paved the way for the popular IDEs we use today. Albeit missing vital debugging features in its initial release, such as breakpoints and watches, these were later on introduced in 1990 when its version 6 was released.

38年后，Turbo Pascal为我们今天使用的流行IDE铺平了道路。 尽管在最初的版本中缺少一些重要的调试功能，例如断点和监视功能，但这些功能后来在1990年的第6版中推出。

I hope you enjoyed this brief story on the origins of what is now possibly the biggest facilitator in the debugging of code today!

我希望您喜欢这个简短的故事，它讲述了现在可能是当今代码调试中最大的辅助工具的起源！

Fun fact: this exceptional programmer was also known for inventing another concept for the first time — the Sort Merge Generator. Her innovation was the first example of using a computer to create a computer program!

有趣的事实： 这位杰出的程序员也因首次发明另一个概念而闻名- 排序合并生成器 。 她的创新是使用计算机创建计算机程序的第一个示例！