[fpc-devel] Debugger for FPC

[ABorka]

I agree. The current ways to debug FPC/Lazarus programs are not up to 
the standards even compared to 10-15 years ago Delphi debugging.

Most developers does not want to start digging the underlying 
RTL/Component, etc. source codes to figure out what they should enter 
into the watch window expression instead of the variable name they are 
trying to see. They want to focus on developing what they are working on.
They want - rightfully - to double click or copy paste or mouse-over to 
see the variables, properties, etc.
If they need to learn a translation dictionary to do (hack) it - if at 
all it is possible to see that variable - then it is not acceptable and 
significantly slows the development. Not to mention to change variable 
values, re-executing/jumping to parts of the code (New CS:IP), CPU 
window, etc.

This is one of the major things that is missing from FPC/Lazarus at the 
moment (for many people the most important).
No matter how awesomely FPC and Lazarus progresses this will be always a 
show stopper for the majority of developers until it is resolved.
Whether it is GDB, native FPC debugger, or something else, it does not 
matter as far as it does the job in a satisfactory manner. Currently, it 
does not.

AB

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:
> Hi everybody,
>
.
. SNIP
.
> 
> Like I said, I am not very knowledgeable with debugger internals, but
> I am willing to learn and help. Not having decent debugger support is
> killing me - and I am clearly not alone, as the thread in the Lazarus
> mailing list proves. The problem as far as I can see, is that the Free
> Pascal project is trying to use existing debuggers that were NOT
> designed to work with the Object Pascal language. So maybe we should
> stop using those and implement our own debugging symbol format (if
> that is required) and then continue with writing a debugger specific
> to Free Pascal. I am more that willing to put in some effort if it
> means we end up with a working debugger!
> 
> Your thoughts?
> 
> Regards,
>   - Graeme -