[Lazarus] constant propertuies / function[Re: properties (delphi does it wrong too) [Re: debugger feature request created]]

[Martin]

Hans-Peter Diettrich wrote:
> Martin schrieb:
>
>> Well as I already mailed: Some properties can be inspected now (using 
>> fpc 2.3.1 and dwarf). So this is (partly) fixed.
>>
>> "Some properties"  means properties that have an read-accessor 
>> pointing to a variable.
>>
>> Properties that have a function to provide the value can not be 
>> inspected.
>> * And I am more than happy they can not *
>>
>> Yes Delphi can do this and does do this. And what does it mean? If in 
>> Delphi I accidentally hover the mouse over a property, The function 
>> is called (actually Delphi calls it twice). As a result all Values on 
>> the object change (because many functions do more than just read 
>> values, they update values too).
>> The application is in a state that is no longer correct (because the 
>> values have changed to something they where not supposed to be). And 
>> I have to abort my debug session and start over. What help is that?
>
> Right. A C++ style "const" attribute were helpful, in order to 
> distinguish between mere "inspectors" and other getters that change 
> the state of an object. Or we could add an "inspect" directive to the 
> property "read" and "write" directives...
>
>   "property" ... "read" GetProp ["const"] ["inspect" SeeProp] ...

That would certainly have a positive side effect here. It would be much 
more interesting for code optimisation by the compiler....

Martin