breakpoint

programming A point in a program that, when reached,

triggers some special behavior useful to the process of

debugging; generally, breakpoints are used to either pause

program execution, and/or dump the values of some or all

of the program variables. Breakpoints may be part of the

program itself; or they may be set by the programmer as part

of an interactive session with a debugging tool for

scrutinizing the program's execution.

(1999-06-07)