[fpc-devel] A little something I've been working on...

[Martin Frb]

On 22/02/2026 19:11, Kostas Michalopoulos via fpc-devel wrote:
> On 2/21/26 7:36 PM, Martin Frb via fpc-devel wrote:
>> Well, yes, you still save on **encoding** Pascal into Dwarf. But you 
>> have to decode 2 debug formats. (or more, depending on which others 
>> you want to support, in any case: 1 more than otherwise)
>
> FWIW in practice FPC being able to emit DWARF debug information is 
> useful for other tools too, like Valgrind and Perf (and other 
> performance analyzers) so i do not think that dropping DWARF support 
> is a good idea.
>
> Of course a better debug experience with FPC + Lazarus would be great 
> because there are always annoyances here and there but that shouldn't 
> happen by removing existing functionality (being able to step into 
> non-FPC code) and interoperability (being able to use FPC binaries 
> with any tool that understands DWARF)

Aside from his "he wanted to do it for the experience" the reasoning 
about Dwarf is - as previously indicated - IMHO incorrect.
Dwarf supports a lot more than we use. And can be extended (official and 
fpc-only).

I would say the biggest problems with debugging today (Win/Linux / 
Intel) is caused by missing implementation in the compiler.

And well, his work including a new info-format fixes this, that is true.
But...
  It isn't the new format that does the fix, it is the fact that he 
implemented it into the compiler.
  Had he done the same using Dwarf, and he would have had the same fixes.


Yes, true as well, that it may be a little bit less work doing so with 
the new format. Not because Dwarf is so "C biased", but because Dwarf is 
way more generic. But, the upside is, that then you get a choice of way 
more debuggers, for way more target architectures.

So from all the arguments I saw sofar, the only one that stuck was "he 
wanted to do it for the experience".

For all else I couldn't help but think of: https://xkcd.com/927/
(But at the same time admit, in other case I have myself done the same 
an paved my own road, because I could, and I wanted)

Anyway, still haven't seen the result...