Detect if Debugger is Attached in VB6

Here is what we are using that does not have any side effects

Public Property Get InIde() As Boolean
    Debug.Assert pvSetTrue(InIde)
End Property

Private Function pvSetTrue(bValue As Boolean) As Boolean
    bValue = True
    pvSetTrue = True
End Function

Here's a function I've been using:

Private Function RunningInIde() As Boolean
    On Error GoTo ErrHandler
    Debug.Print 1 / 0
ErrHandler:
    RunningInIde = (Err.Number <> 0)
End Function            ' RunningInIde

I wrote something like this awhile back and can't find it, and needed it again. So I just wrote it again and I think I got it right:

Public Function IsRunningInIde() As Boolean
    Static bFlag As Boolean
    bFlag = Not bFlag
    If bFlag Then Debug.Assert IsRunningInIde()
    IsRunningInIde = Not bFlag
    bFlag = False
End Function

No errors getting raised.

No resetting of Err.

Just one function.

Line 1: The "Static" declaration of "bFlag" causes the value of bFlag to stick across multiple calls to "IsRunningInIde". We want this because I call this function within itself, and I didn't want to litter the function with input parameters that aren't needed by the user.

Line 3: The "Debug.Assert" doesn't get called when not running in the IDE. So only when in the IDE does "IsrunningInIde" get called recursively.

Line 2: If not in the recursive call, bFlag starts out false, and gets set to true. If in the recursive call (only happens when running in the IDE), it starts out as true, and gets set back to false.

Line 3: Only call "IsRunningInIde" if it isn't already in this function recursively, by checking if bFlag is true.

Line 4: If in recursive call, always returns True, which doesn't really matter, but doesn't cause the Assert to fail. If not in recursive call, then returns "Not bFlag", which bFlag is now "False" if IsRunningInIde was called recursively, and bFlag is "True" if not called recursively. So basically, Not bFlag returns "True" if it is running in the IDE.

Line 5: Clears the bFlag so that it is always "False" at the beginning of the next call to this function.

It's hard to explain, it is better to step through it in your mind, in both scenarios.

If you want simpler to understand code, don't use it.

If there is a problem with this code, I apologize and let me know so I can fix it.