ICE and debugging options

Projects Programming
1

I was wondering if the Atmel/Arduino environment has the possibility using a JTAG ICE for debugging.

In poking around, I saw people using ICE as a programmer, but not as a debugger.

Making changes and uploading new code to the target is a much slower dev process than using a ICE for debug. I feel like I have been transported back 25 years, when debugging was often blinky lights and sometimes a display.

I realize that the AVR parts are not for large projects and sophisticated debugging is not a requirement, but setting break points and looking at registers, etc is really helpful.

2

Arduino does not have that kind of debugging, but Atmel Studio makes that claim. I've not used it.

3

The usual advice for Arduino debugging is to use Serial.print(...) and Serial.println(...).

Atmel has a hardware debugger but the communication protocol is proprietary.

I have seen articles on software-based debuggers. The articles list shortcomings that will be addressed in the future - but never are.

Of course, I may have missed something and I am willing to be educated.

By the way, I don't find register contents very useful for debugging a C++ program.