[fpc-devel] Debugger for FPC

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 10:59 AM, Martin Schreiber <fpmse at bluewin.ch> wrote:
>
> For me GDB with the MSEide frontend is better than the integrated debugger in
> Delphi 7.

I can't comment on GDB+MSEide, but for me and many others Delphi
debugger is *much* better that GDB+Lazarus.

> It is almost impossible to develop something like MSEide+MSEgui
> with writeln and logfile approach. Manytimes bugs are hard to find in event
> driven software without watchpoints.

Then try and debug tiOPF's visitors! :-) Anybody using hard-coded
visitors with tiOPF will know what I mean. I have learnt to master the
log file approach.


>> * Tooltip evaluation of highlighted code gives "no such symbol in
>> context" errors
>
> Same can happen in Delphi 7 for example in with statements.

In Delphi 7 it only happened in with statements. In Lazarus it's more
frequent, even outside with statements.


>> * Properties on objects cannot be debugged. You have to use the
>> underlying field variable if you have access to it,
>
> A small problem once you know it. :-)
>
>> or you the
>> property uses access methods you are screwed.
>
> Think on the possible sideeffects.

Everybody keeps hammering on this point. Delphi has supported property
access methods since forever and I have not heard of a single Delphi
developer complaining about the "possible side effects". For me the
pros far outweigh the cons!

> Using gdb has the *big* advantage to have a working environment on many
> platforms with working remote debugging. I suspect the work for developping
> an own debugger will be very big, have a look into the gdb sources and you
> know what I mean...

Well writing a new compiler is just such a big task and it didn't
prevent Florian from starting FPC. Having a 100% working debugger (no
matter if it takes a while to get there) is still much better in the
long run - for the developers and for the Free Pascal Compiler
project. Not to mention MSEide and Lazarus IDE could benefit from it
too.


> The main problem with gdb is the communication by pipes and the not finished
> mi-interface, once the communication works and the workarounds for the
> missing mi-functions are done gdb is not bad.

Well at least having our own object pascal based compiler, we will be
able to implement new features and fixes much quicker than GDB.


Regards,
  - Graeme -


_______________________________________________
fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit
http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/