Thursday, November 15, 2007

New EnScript Features in EnCase 6.8

As I blogged about earlier, EnCase v6.8 was released yesterday (11/14/07). For no other reason than the new EnScript features, you should consider upgrading. There is a long list of fixes and enhancements, but the new EnScript features are very cool.

The first new feature seems trival, but its a very welcome addition to now have line numbering. It is turned off by default, but if you go to "tools" -> "options" -> EnScript Tab. There is now a checkbox that says "Show line numbers".



Checking this box will immediately enable line numbering in any/all EnScripts you may have open for editing. Then, when you compile the EnScript if there are any syntax errors, EnCase will generate an error in the "Output" tab and show you the vertical line number and horizontal position of the code that generated the error.



Very cool!....

The second new feature is even better! You can now do real-time debugging of an EnScript, including setting breakpoints and watching variable values during execution.

How it works
To enable this feature, you need to first create a project. In EnCase, select "View" -> "Projects". In the Table pane (upper right), right-click anywhere and choose new (or press the Insert key). Name your project whatever you want and then select the EnScript you want to debug:



Once you select "OK", go back to the EnScript editing window and you should see the "Run" button has been replaced by a "Start Debugging" button. You can now set a breakpoint by clicking your mouse anywhere on the left column where the line numbers are now displayed. This will cause a red ball to appear on the line you clicked on, enabling a breakpoint on that line (you can set multiple breakpoints). Then when you run your EnScript, program execution will pause when it reaches the line where you placed the breakpoint. You can then continue, step over, step into or break the execution at that point. You can also view the value of all the variables at that point of execution in the lower view pane.



Very nice....Although its not yet a full-featured IDE, this will definitely help when debugging and developing an EnScript!

1 comments:

Anonymous Friday, 16 November, 2007  

The debugger is very very cool - it helps this newbie Enscript programmer figure out just how things work.

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