Re: Gdb in emacs 24

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: David Reitter <david.reitter@gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2011 09:37:45 -0400
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> On Oct 6, 2011, at 7:25 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> >>> The very first line of the doc string says:
> >>> 
> >>> gdb is an interactive autoloaded Lisp function in `gdb-mi.el'.
> >>>                                                    ^^^^^^^^^
> >> 
> >> So, you're now asking users to infer the interface between GDB and Emacs from file names of the source file?
> > 
> > Huh? did you even read the message to which I was responding?  A user
> > asked why her ELisp function stopped working in Emacs 24.  That
> > function used "--annotate=3" switch to GDB.  I responded that since
> > Emacs 24 switched to using the MI interface to GDB, using --annotate
> > is expected to fail.
> 
> 
> There must be a misunderstanding.  Here's what you said:
> 
> > If you "C-h f gdb RET", you will see that Emacs 24 switched to use the
> > GDB/MI interface, so the --annotate=3 thingy is no longer TRT, and I'm
> > quite sure it will interfere in "interesting" ways.

That was part of an attempt to help a user understand why her Lisp no
longer works in Emacs 24.

> And I pointed out that you couldn't actually infer the switch to the new interface from the doc string of `gdb'.

There's no requirement to infer the switch, because I just told about
the switch myself.

> 1. The user doesn't care about how Emacs GDB and the underlying gdb communicate, and how that changes between Emacs versions - nor should they have to care.

Users who don't care shouldn't override the Emacs defaults with an
explicit GDB command line that is based on intimate details of how GUD
invokes GDB.