1. An application object debugger in a computer system comprising: an application object associated with an application object heap; a debugger associated with a debugger heap and having access to debug class files that define the application object; a process attacher for providing access to the application object heap independently of the application object; an object copier for generating a stateful application object copy of the application object in the debugger heap at runtime via the process attacher; and a class file loader for loading a class definition file or the debug class file for said application object copy from the debug class files, wherein the debug class file can be identical to the class definition file or contains additional software methods to assist the debugger to diagnose the application object copy at runtime, wherein the debugger is configured to interrogate and manipulate the application object copy independently of the application object.