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### 5.4 Debugging IDL Programs

Programs can be compiled, run, and debugged directly from the source buffer in Emacs, walking through arbitrarily deeply nested code, printing expressions and skipping up and down the calling stack along the way. IDLWAVE makes compiling and debugging IDL programs far less cumbersome by providing a full-featured, key/menu/toolbar-driven interface to commands like `breakpoint`, `.step`, `.run`, etc. It can even perform complex debug operations not natively supported by IDL (like continuing to the line at the cursor).

The IDLWAVE shell installs key bindings both in the shell buffer and in all IDL code buffers of the current Emacs session, so debug commands work in both places (in the shell, commands operate on the last file compiled). On Emacs versions which support it, a debugging toolbar is also installed. The toolbar display can be toggled with `C-c C-d C-t` (`idlwave-shell-toggle-toolbar`).

— User Option: idlwave-shell-use-toolbar (`t`)

> Non-`nil` means use the debugging toolbar in all IDL related buffers.