The TRACE, TRACEX, WARN, and WARNX macros take a <msg> argument that is conditionally inserted into an output stream. This means a sequence of objects can be inserted in the output stream (for example TRACE( "Mouse @ " << x << "," << y ); ). The use of streams is extensible to different object types and allows for parameters within trace messages.

Diagnostic macro message output can be viewed while the program is running. If the target environment is Windows, the output is sent to the OutputDebugString function, and can be viewed with the DBWIN.EXE or OX.SYS utilities. If Turbo Debugger is running, the output will be sent to its log window. If the target environment is DOS, the output is sent to the standard output stream and can be easily redirected at the command line.

See Also