Towards the proper "step" command in parallel debuggers

Summary form only given. The article is devoted to the concept of the stepping commands in parallel debuggers. It reviews the main existing schemes (synchronous and asynchronous step implementations) and introduces a new kind of synchronous scheme that has several advantages over existing ones. In this scheme the debugger performs the dynamic analysis of the program state thus simplifying the program state presentation and control. The possible implementation of suggested scheme in MPI debuggers is discussed and the existing implementation in mpC Workshop parallel debugger is presented.