Re: GDB is the GNU project's native debugger

[Steven Johnson <sjohnson@neurizon.net>]

Andrew Cagney wrote:

> GDB is the GNU project's native debuger.  While we're certainly happy 
> to accomodate people using GDB as either an embedded debugger or 
> native debugger on other systems, the need to persue GDB as a native 
> debugger on GNU systems must be our first priority.
>
> Do we all agree with this?
>
>
My 2c.

The statement doesnt mean anything.

As the code in GDB is developed by the donations of people, in either 
time or money to companies who spend time.  The "primary" focus of GDB 
will always be the focus of the majority of "donators/contributors" at 
any one time, and will change over time, as the groups "majority" need 
changes.

The (flavour of Open Source) licence is largely irrelevent, except to 
the point that it allows people to feel (more or less) comfortable in 
donating their time to a "common good".

So no, i dont agree with this statement.

I would agree with a statement that said "the majority of people (at the 
current time) who use GDB are debugging programs compiled with GCC".

After that, if tomorrow we get 1000 developers donating their time to 
support Windows XP native debugging of Visual C++, thats going to be the 
"priority" because they will swamp (by their needs and the level of 
their donation at the current time) the needs  and level of donation of 
all others combined.  And we as a group should be thankful for that, 
because it is unlikely that all that work will only be useful for one 
target platform, so even if it doesnt advance the philosophical war, it 
certainly advances the tool which we all use.

Andrew, Can you illuminate us as to why this "philosophical" debat has 
been raised?  What problem are you trying to solve or prevent?

My belief is one of the pleasures of the GDB community is the lack of 
this sort of largely pointless debate.

Steven