Re: [PATCH] gdb: Make startup message more user friendly

Guinevere Larsen
2025-10-15T15:18:11Z

On 10/10/25 5:09 PM, Tom Tromey wrote:
>>>>>> "Guinevere" == Guinevere Larsen <guinevere@redhat.com> writes:
> Guinevere> This commit attempts to make the startup message more friendly to new
> Guinevere> users by using ascii art separators. If there is enough space availabe,
> Guinevere> an ascii art box is printed containing the hints, otherwise a simple
> Guinevere> separator is printed. The code deems "enough space available" when
> Guinevere> there is enough space to print the documentation URL inside the box,
> Guinevere> since the other hints will be broken into multiple lines if necessary.
> Guinevere> Here are examples of the 2 possible startups, with enough space:
>
> If emojis_ok() then it seems like this could use Unicode line drawing
> instead.

I just tested this out and after I managed to get it working, I tested
by adding "set style emoji off", and turns out this is printed before
gdbinit is read, meaning a user can't disable it themselves. I
personally think this is a really good improvement, but I can see this
being a nuisance for users in terminals that support UTF-8 but the user
themself doesn't like it.

What do you think? Should I add it anyway?

--
Cheers,
Guinevere Larsen
It/she