[Lazarus] Issuing debug commands from the ide.

[Martin]

On 01/06/2012 18:30, Benito van der Zander wrote:
> Hi,
>>
>> Have you tried to compile the IDE with DBG_WITH_DEBUGGER_DEBUG
>>  defined?
>>
>> It does exactly the above. It has been there a very long time.
>>
>> It has also been decided, that this feature will only be available 
>> via this define.
>>
> I think it would be much better, if it were a regular feature like in 
> Ludo's patch:
>
> * the define is difficult to find
That is because it is not supposed to be used.

Yes for the experienced users there are sometimes cases that would make 
it desire-able. For the novice it would be in the best case something 
they do not use. But it could easily cause them problems.

I already pointed out, how easy you can upset the IDE-to-gdb interface, 
if you issue the wrong command.


>
> * if you recompile Lazarus frequently, it often disappears.
I recompile very frequently, and it never wet.
I always recompile from the Tools menu

>
> * if you have a Lazarus without define, you can't enable it without 
> recompiling and stopping the debugged application
>
> * Lazarus will never have direct support for all possible gdb 
> commands. If you have added them all, there will be new ones in gdb
And that is the problem.

This also means that if gdb access is possible, then it is impossible 
(even if attempted) for the IDE to monitor all the commands.
Given that some commands have hidden features...
If added people will accidentally type the wrong command.

>
> * The output in the debug window is difficult to read
Yes.

That window shouldn't even exist. Or move to IDE internals
It is only useful, so people can sent the centent, if something went wrong

>
> * Most commands people use won't break the debugging session, like 
> info, x, ...
yep hit "c" instead of "x" (on most keyboards they are next to each other)

And Apple supplies are broken gdb. Some of those commands can do harm.

>
>   (and I just debugged an application that crashes if debugged and 
> "set scheduler-locking on" is not set, with such a patch this
>    option could be set, without restarting gdb)
>
> * If debug commands were that dangerous, Lazarus could show a warning, 
> when the feature is used the first time.
>
> * You can write your own gdb python plugins and call them
>
> * People using a programming language are not stupid and can figure 
> out how to use gdb

Feel free to provide it as an installable package.

Then it can be downloaded and installed