[fpc-devel] Re: Debugger for FPC

[Jonas Maebe]

On 14 Mar 2009, at 09:46, dmitry boyarintsev wrote:

>> No, it's guaranteeing future compatibility, because by using a  
>> property you
>> ensure that you can later on replace the setter with a procedure if
>> necessary, without breaking existing source code (at least in FPC  
>> 2.3.1; FPC
>> 2.2.x misses several checks, allowing you to do all sorts of things  
>> with
>> properties directly mapped to fields that should not be possible).
>
> but, if reading a property is bound to a field. and setting is bound
> to a setting procedure.
> Changing the property is incorrect by writting into the field, instead
> of calling the setting procedure.

You mean changing the property by using the debugger? Then, yes, but I  
don't consider that a big problem at this time. Currently, you can  
choose between having no debug information at all, or the ability to  
potentially wrongly change a property.

> btw, is there an information about string processing functions? (i
> guess it can be included if rebuild rtl with debug info).
> for example, when debugging strings (ansi or wide, not shortstrings)
> it's necessary to change their values, using string processing
> functions, instead of changing their values as PChar or PWideChar?
> AFAIK, gdb is not aware of it, and treats strings as PChar?
>
> for example:
> var
>  a, b : AnsiString;
> begin
>  a := 'hello';
>  b := a;
>  writeln(a); // i set a break point here, and change a value to  
> 'hello world';
>  writeln(b); // b should not change.
> end;
>
> AFAIK, setting values is not implemented is Lazarus yet, but will be  
> in future.
> This way of value changing works in delphi.
> To set the string value, it's necessary to know the string setting
> procedure address, can this additional information be added to DWARF
> too? so debugger can use it if necessary?

No, that would require extensions to the debug info format.


Jonas