[fpc-pascal] fpDebug extension for Visual Studio Code

[Joost van der Sluis]

Seems like the first message did not make it to the list. Maybe because 
of the attachments... Retry:

Op 19-05-2020 om 16:42 schreef Martin Frb:
> On 19/05/2020 15:55, Joost van der Sluis wrote:
>> It is not documented, and, to be honest, only name, value and type are 
>> being used now. It is just a rough idea, we have to figure things out.
> Ah, I see.
> 
> About DebuggerIntf:
> 
> 1) DebuggerIntf was meant to be the API between IDE and the 
> debugger-backend.
> The backend is TFpDebugDebugger.
> FpDebug is not the backend, its used by the backend. But it currently 
> provides for the backend, and that means it uses those classes....

I was very disappointed when i (re?)-discovered that fpDebug has a 
dependency on DebuggerIntf.

> 2) DebuggerIntf was never "designed".
> It was ripped out of GDBMIDebugger, with the hope to be cleaned up and 
> refactored. That hope is still there....
> 
> That also raises the question what you base your DAB classes on.
> Some code that you will need, does live in TFpDebugDebugger
> - Detecting the instantiated class, instead of the declared class.
> - Checking breakpoint conditions (Though part of this should move into 
> FpDebug)
> - Handling Exceptions / stepping to except,finally (not sure if that is 
> likely to move)

It is even more complex then I could remember.
   Thanks for the update, very useful. I think it is difficult to 
discuss a new design/solution at a distance. I've tried to catch the 
problems in some pictures.

Picture1: http://amira.cnoc.nl/fpc/FPDebugDesign1.svg

Picture1 show what I want to achieve. I want to use the formatting of 
variables and such in another environment as Lazarus. And ind the long 
term I want to make it possible  for Lazarus to use other debuggers. 
Also for other languages. (Using DAB or others)

Picture2: http://amira.cnoc.nl/fpc/FPDebugDesign2.svg

Picture2 shows the current situation at a high abstraction level. The 
logic for displaying variables is all over the place, as you explained.

Please correct me, if I'm wrong somewhere.

Picture3: http://amira.cnoc.nl/fpc/FPDebugDesign3.svg

Picture3 shows a possible solution. We add a new class, in the picture 
called 'formatter' to handle the display of variables. As an input it 
will need some 'handler' which implements an interface with functions to 
retrieve debug-information and access memory. It's output can be in 
something like the TDbgVariable format I showed before. (Needs 
adaptation, though).

In the picture I let the IDE make a direct connection to this new 
'formatter'. But maybe it is better to do this in DebuggerIntf.

I also thought about a migration-path: we can just add this new route, 
without using it. And then enable it bit-by-bit. We could alse add a 
'default' implementation in DebuggerIntf. So all debug-handlers may use 
it, or add overrides to do it in a different way.

What do you think?

Regards,

Joost.