Devising a TraceObject Class for Improved Runtime Monitoring of ooRexx Applications

The dynamic programming language ooRexx includes a runtime monitoring keyword instruction named TRACE. This keyword instruction produces a trace line for each traced statement. Although additional trace information was added, ooRexx 5.0.0 is missing important information, such as tracing threads, whether a method is currently guarded, the guard locks state, and the interpreter instance. With the introduction of a specific trace-related class, TraceObject, it is now possible to maintain all ooRexx-related trace information for each traced statement in a proper directory that can be analyzed at runtime. This article will introduce the TraceObject class and its properties, including the ability to collect all produced trace objects for inspection and analysis. It focuses on the trace line (the trace object's string) representation that can be formatted to include the missing aspects for analyzing dynamic, multi-threaded, guarded methods on multi-instance ooRexx applications.