From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 32060 invoked by alias); 26 Oct 2006 20:01:56 -0000 Received: (qmail 32051 invoked by uid 22791); 26 Oct 2006 20:01:56 -0000 X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from mail.codesourcery.com (HELO mail.codesourcery.com) (65.74.133.4) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.31) with ESMTP; Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:01:50 +0000 Received: (qmail 1453 invoked from network); 26 Oct 2006 20:01:49 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO localhost) (jimb@127.0.0.2) by mail.codesourcery.com with ESMTPA; 26 Oct 2006 20:01:49 -0000 To: Russell Shaw Cc: gdb@sourceware.org Subject: Re: Gdb References: <453F0CA7.7070309@netspace.net.au> From: Jim Blandy Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:01:00 -0000 In-Reply-To: <453F0CA7.7070309@netspace.net.au> (Russell Shaw's message of "Wed, 25 Oct 2006 17:05:11 +1000") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.50 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-IsSubscribed: yes Mailing-List: contact gdb-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-owner@sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2006-10/txt/msg00270.txt.bz2 Russell Shaw writes: > After narrowing down a bug location in the last few days, it seems > all too obvious that gdb needs to be gutted and recast. It can all > be made simpler and more understandable, thus easier to maintain. I think you should give it a shot. I'd love to see a proper set of libraries for controlling processes and interpreting debugging information. You may want to look at Frysk, which is a newer design taking a very different approach, but addressing many of the same kinds of problems that GDB tries to. I've come to think that trying to do involved symbolic processing (types; scoping; overload resolution; and multiply by ten where C++ is involved) without garbage collection is like trying to build a pocket watch out of sawdust and superglue. Frysk is written in Java. But I would also say that what you've written here looks to me like a pretty common reaction of people who've had good experiences writing their own code to unfamiliar and complex programs; and at least in my own experience, it often mellows as one works with the code more.