From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 5799 invoked by alias); 7 Aug 2009 20:48:05 -0000 Received: (qmail 5790 invoked by uid 22791); 7 Aug 2009 20:48:04 -0000 X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,SPF_PASS X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from relay04.stack.nl (HELO mx1.stack.nl) (131.155.140.107) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.43rc1) with ESMTP; Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:47:58 +0000 Received: from turtle.stack.nl (turtle.stack.nl [IPv6:2001:610:1108:5010::132]) by mx1.stack.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9B224375B40; Fri, 7 Aug 2009 22:47:53 +0200 (CEST) Received: by turtle.stack.nl (Postfix, from userid 816) id 8BC8C33CA1; Fri, 7 Aug 2009 22:47:53 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Re: errors in GDB reading symbols To: tromey@redhat.com Date: Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:48:00 -0000 Cc: gdb@sourceware.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-Id: <20090807204753.8BC8C33CA1@turtle.stack.nl> From: marcov@stack.nl (Marco van de Voort) Mailing-List: contact gdb-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-owner@sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2009-08/txt/msg00052.txt.bz2 > It is definitely still very much used in the Dos/go32v2 and Win32 versino of > the IDE. It is also used in our own builds of the Linux- version of the IDE, FreeBSD also. > but less so in the versions packaged by distributions (mostly because of > there being no separate working "libgdb.a" package). > Other than the implementation cost that you noted, the main opposition to > using MI that I've heard are >a) as mentioned by Marco, it's probably impossible to use it on Dos (since >there's no multitasking) IIRC the win9x pipe situation is not very good either. Which limits you on Windows too, if you still support win9x. >b) communication with gdb via MI is supposedly dreadfully slow on Windows (I >don't have Windows, so I can't confirm or deny this) File I/O and starting binaries in particular on Windows is relatively slow, which is why a fragmentation over multiple binaries is not desirable. Moreover, it is simply not the culture on non-unix to do so. Partially the earlier own debugger discussion is fueled by one of the improvements of FPC's internal linker relative to LD, the experience that makes the call for an own debugger so vocal. It knocks off tens of seconds in the compile-start-with-debug cycle, and makes GDB the next bottleneck (this is for Lazarus, not the textmode IDE) This is also because most FPC users rate speed relative to something like Delphi, and thus have a low tolerance for pain and slowliness. Delphi does typically compile-start-with-debug in one second if the compile is relatively incremental..... Personally I think the own debugger part, even IF it ever comes to fruition is still far, far away, and for a few selected platforms only. So we still have to live with GDB quite a while. Forcing the MI interface would effectively kill the textmode IDE, it is effectively in maintenance for years. If there is something to be done on the GDB side, I'd prefer investing time in libgdb. What are the problems with it? Does something need updating, etc? I don't see the point of the MI interface at all btw. What is the idea behind it? And why does it need to be one size fits all to desperately?