Re: [PATCH] Tracing notes and metadata

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:00:18 -0700
> From: Stan Shebs <stan_shebs@mentor.com>
> 
> With this patch, any arguments to tstart and tstop are recorded with the 
> trace run as free-form text, and reported as part of its status.  Also, 
> there is a trace-user variable (which is free form text which is 
> typically constant and you can set in your .gdbinit), and set/show 
> variables for the start and stop notes as well.
> 
> In addition, this patch adds start/stop timestamps and per-tracepoint 
> hit counts and traceframe usage.
> 
> The patch still needs testsuite and NEWS, but considering the user 
> interface tinkering, it seemed like a good idea to solicit feedback 
> before committing to all the details.

The documentation part is okay, but please add some overview of the
notes, to serve as the glue to the description of the commands.  As I
read the patch, I was wondering whether there's only one note that can
be set by either "tstart" or "tstop" (and then what happens if you
give arguments to "tstop" when "tstart" already provided a note?), or
two separate and independent notes (in which case why do we have
"trace-stop-notes", but no "trace-start-notes"?).  Instead of
disclosing all this piecemeal and leaving the reader with a reasonable
doubt, why not explain it once and for all?

Btw, didn't the socializing parties ask you for a way to _add_ to an
existing note, rather than overwriting it?  The way you designed it,
fixing a single typo requires retyping (or copy/pasting) the whole
thing, which sounds inconvenient.

Thanks.