Re: -var-update using formatted value

[Vladimir Prus <ghost@cs.msu.su>]

On Sunday 20 January 2008 01:01:29 Nick Roberts wrote:
>  > > I don't like this change.  If I change the format to hexadecimal, 11 -> 0xb
>  > > say, the display should change, so I would like GDB to report it through
>  > > -var-update.
>  > 
>  > Why? It seems to me that if user does "change format" in UI, then UI should:
>  > 
>  >   1. Change format
>  >   2. Display the value shown according to the new format
>  
> In this case, GDB needs to print the value of the new format.  I did submit a
> patch to do this in the thread:
> 
> http://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2006-05/msg00008.html
> 
> but it never got approved.  I've now configured Emacs (but can revert) for
> current behaviour.
> 
> 
>  > I cannot imagine any usecase where the frontend would:
>  > 
>  >  1. Change format
>  >  2. Step program
>  >  3. Issue -var-update
> 
> I'm not sure what point you're making here.  Debugging GDB, has variables which
> contain addresses which are not pointers (so the natural format is decimal),
> e.g., stack_addr, code_addr components of frames.  It makes sense here to:
> 
> 1.  Change format to hexadecimal
> 2.  Step GDB
> 3.  Issue -var-update to see if these values have changed.

What UI-level command does this? And why, after you change format, 
you don't read/display the value in new format?

- Volodya