From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: nickrob@snap.net.nz (Nick Roberts) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: GDB on Mac is (NOT) Broken Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:17:11 +1300 Message-ID: <19358.38343.541183.28046@totara.tehura.co.nz> References: <19357.53872.672127.600861@totara.tehura.co.nz> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1268751615 32653 80.91.229.12 (16 Mar 2010 15:00:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:00:15 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Chad Brown Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Mar 16 16:00:10 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1NrYFd-0006Gg-AT for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:00:09 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:34703 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NrYFc-0002Gl-JK for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:00:08 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NrYDc-0001QH-EJ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:58:04 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=42387 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NrYDa-0001NF-CT for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:58:04 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1NrYDQ-0004YG-BL for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:57:54 -0400 Original-Received: from viper.snap.net.nz ([202.37.101.25]:34678) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1NrYDP-0004Y4-Md for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:57:52 -0400 Original-Received: from totara (134.31.255.123.dynamic.snap.net.nz [123.255.31.134]) by viper.snap.net.nz (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF7533DA8CA; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:17:12 +1300 (NZDT) Original-Received: by totara (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 9E107C16F; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:17:11 +1300 (NZDT) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: VM 7.19 under Emacs 22.2.1 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4-2.6 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:122059 Archived-At: > Any idea why/how M-x gdb got into such a state that core emacs developers > are saying things like ``it's such a complete mess that reporting all the > bugs is a depressingly huge job''? I have easy access to a macosx machine > with gdb; maybe I can help. It's just Miles, I think, and I've no idea why he would choose to make such remarks. Perhaps you should ask him. I don't think they are directed at the Mac platform but, sure, any help will be gratefully received. There are many people who like the "gdb-ui thingy" but perhaps they are not as vocal as those who become unstuck. However, I can make some suggestions that could make the use of GDB in Emacs easier: 1) Read the documentation in the Emacs manual (M-x gud-gdb is described on the eighth line of "Starting GUD".) 2) If you want to use GDB in Emacs in earnest, use a *released* version of Emacs. 3) If you want to help with the development of GDB in Emacs, use the CVS version of Emacs. 4) For a while the CVS version of Emacs used an interface called GDB/MI. This gave less reliable behaviour but is still a long term goal. That may have caused some frustration. 5) If you try, I'm sure you can get the GDB Graphical Interface to do the wrong thing, like display the source in the wrong buffer, or worse. Emacs is so customisable/flexible that it's hard to do the right things in all cases. It works fine for me when I'm careful about window configuration. I use 'gdb-restore-windows' quite often. 6) Many poeple appear to use gdb-many-windows but I prefer not to and start just with the GUD buffer. The source appears when I hit a breakpoint and I then just display the associated buffers, e.g., stack buffer, that I need in a separate frame (from the menu-bar). 7) M-x gud-gdb is more reliable because it's more basic. You get to see the source but not much more. You even have to remember where the breakpoints are. I hope these comments are more helpful than some of the recent ones. Please do make bug reports but they need to be concise and provide a recipe to reproduce the problem (see "Reporting Bugs" in the Emacs manual). -- Nick http://users.snap.net.nz/~nickrob