Using DUnit from the Delphi IDE and avoid breakpoint on exceptions

Question

I'm using Delphi XE and I've got a project group containing the main application and a DUnit test application. From time to time, I go to the DUnit test application to add some tests and run existing one.

Some test code generates exceptions which are handled by the application, but displayed multiple time by the Delphi Debugger as I'm used to running the test application using the F9 shortcut like I do with standard application: this is not very handy in that case.

I know about the SHIFT+CTRL+F9 shortcut to run without debugging and that's great when I remember to use it but I often find myself hitting F9, then grunting, then closing the test application, then hitting SHIFT+CTRL+F9. What a lost of time.

So my question: is there a better way ? Can I define some settings or use some expert to make that particular application run without debugging by default ? Surely I'm not the only one having this issue.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Nope (at least not up until D2009). Run without debugging is an IDE thing. A comiler flag would not help as it is the IDE that hooks the exe, not the other way around. The only place where you could have such an option would be in the project settings. But having it could make the IDE slightly confusing as the normal distinction between Run and Run without debugging would be overruled. You would then need a third option I guess, "Run", "Run with debugging" and "Run without debugging" where the simple "Run" would take its cue from the project options.

Answer 2

Add the run-without-debugging icon to the toolbar. Your problem is you forget the hotkey, and click the icon. So remove the other icon, or move them both around, like this:

The bigger your application grows, I find, the slower the debugger startup gets. I run without debugging about 99% of the time now, because the startup time of my app goes from 2 seconds, to 2 minutes, because it uses a lot of runtime packages, and every BPL load in the debugger comes at a huge hit to my productivity. So long, slow painful experience has re-educated me to ask myself "Do I really need to debug?". If I don't, I click the nice green icon (in XE) that replaces the exclamation mark icon in older versions. (A smart UI improvement I think.). In previous delphi versions, the green play button meant "run with debugging".