Re: Python API - pretty printing complex types

[Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com>]

>>>>> "Andrew" == Andrew Oakley <andrew@ado.is-a-geek.net> writes:

Andrew> I think it would be nice to be able to return pretty printers from the
Andrew> children iterator of another pretty printer. This would allow "phony
Andrew> groups" to be created - simply return another pretty printer for the
Andrew> group and it will get printed in the usual fashion.  

Yes, good idea.

Andrew> 3. Assume that objects that are not gdb.Value instances are pretty
Andrew> printers.  This prevents any further extensions from working in the
Andrew> same way.

Andrew> 4. Assume that objects with a to_string member are pretty printers.
Andrew> This is the only required member of pretty printers and seems more in
Andrew> line with other python libraries.  We probably want to check for this
Andrew> after checking if the object was a gdb.Value, both for performance
Andrew> reasons and to ensure no existing code has an nasty surprises.

Andrew> I think option 4 is the best choice here and I'm happy to write a patch
Andrew> to do this if there is some agreement that it is a reasonable decision
Andrew> (and therefore might actually get committed).  

I think either #3 or #4 would be fine.  I would approve a clean
(well, "clean-enough" :-) implementation of either.

If you do plan to implement this, contact me off-list so we can get the
paperwork stuff started.

If you don't plan to do it, please file it in bugzilla.

Tom