How can you debug ASP without a debugger?

It's always best to have a debugger, the step into and step over fuctions, etc., server-side especially, are life savers. But, if you don't have one (for what ever reason) try saving the following code into a seperate file - with an asp or inc extension recommended - and simply <!--#Include File="the file name" //-->

<%
Dim bDebugging

Sub TraceStart()
bDebugging = True
DebugIt "Tracing started"
End Sub

Sub TraceStop()
DebugIt "Tracing stopped"
bDebugging = False
End Sub

Sub DebugIt( strString )
If bDebugging Then
Response.Write "Debugging: " & strString & "<br>"
End If
End Sub

Sub TraceProcedureStart( strProcedure )
DebugIt strProcedure & " started"
End Sub

Sub TraceProcedureEnd( strProcedure )
DebugIt strProcedure & " ended"
End Sub

Sub CheckError()
Response.Write "<br>Error Description is: " & Err.Description & ".<br>"
End Sub
%>

Then you can TraceStart(), and DebugIt"variable name = " & variable name, and TraceStop() {on seperate lines} to gain visiblity to what's going on at that point. Better yet, TraceStart() once at the start of the file, and TraceStop() at the end, then you can DebugIt" " as many times as you want - and if you don't want to comment each one out or delete them you can simply set bDebugging to False in TraceStart. Enjoy, Wendell