Re: 8-byte register values on a 32-bit machine

Andrew Cagney
2003-03-12T18:15:03Z

>> > I think it is very dangerous. It's assuming a specific algorithm
>> > in the compiler. That locks both GDB and GCC into something of a
>> > death spiral. I think its far better to try and get a proper
>> > location mechanism working.
>
>>
>> There are other ways forward on this - moving the algorithm to libiberty
>> (like the demangler).
>
>
> This is a target-specific allocation order, for communication between
> GCC and GDB, not a matter of published interfaces - I don't think it
> belongs in libiberty. It's subject to change, but I have a reasonable
> expectation that it won't change until after debugging info to express
> it is available.
>
> In any case I'm going back to working on locations as objects, which is
> the next step in fixing this properly.

Mark's point was that the algorithm, while machine specific, hasn't
changed in N (10?) years.

Even if in the future, the algorithm does change, GDB/GCC might as well
share the code for the original one so that GDB can work better with
older compilers.

Andrew