Re: [PATCH:MI] Return a subset of a variable object's children

Nick Roberts
2008-04-30T09:25:45Z

> > > I was thinking that only a small number of children would ever exist
> > > simultaneously. Scrolling might make that a larger number but maybe
> > > it could be arranged to delete children that go out of view.
> >
> > I wonder if deleting children that are not visible is possible/desirable.
>
> Well, I would still prefer a simple toggle that would allow me to switch off
> any automatic creation of children and one-shot 'expression evaluation'
> and one-shot 'children listing'.

Are you arguing against the general concept of variable objects?

> I would expect this to be much simpler to implement on the gdb side and
> gives all the flexibility needed (as far as I am concerned) on the
> frontend side.

Presumably your one-shot 'children listing' requires all values to be printed
each time. Variable objects work by just printing the values which have
changed.

> Complex containers may do all kind of funny stuff behind the debugger's
> back (like reallocation, rebalancing, renumbering, moving stuff to and from
> secondary memory) which a frontend might want to handle transparently.
> I would not expect gdb to even be aware of that (let alone to handle(!) it).
>
> Also, hard-wiring behaviour to certain types calls for trouble on the
> frontend side. E.g...

Who's talking about complex containers or hardwiring? The vectors and linked
lists discussed in this thread are internal to Gdb, not those of the program
being debugged.

--
Nick http://www.inet.net.nz/~nickrob