> I would expect similar behavior from GDB (except that in GDB, the
> lack of demangling would really complicate things more than the
> same lack in binutils). So, my opinion is that GDB is the main
> problem here, since this patch effectively makes Java debugging
> very difficult with an unpatched GDB.
It does. However, it might be possible to persuade people to ship
updated bnutils on free operating systems. Unfree systems are going
to be much more problematic, though.
I'm not sure we are talking about a hard requirement to update
binutils. The old version works. There are a few instances that
could cause confusion but which could be solved with a FAQ entry that
says to upgrade binutils to some version to get more specific error
messages (ie. Unresolved symbols in the output from ld would not
pretty-print but would show raw mangled form).
As for GDB, I think it does become non-negotiable to upgrade that in
order to get anything but the most rudimentary debugging support. I
have to ask, though, how many people who are using a bleeding-edge
version of gcj will be unwilling to update to a new version of GDB?