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Compiler bugs
- To: gcc-bugs at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Subject: Compiler bugs
- From: root at jacob dot remcomp dot fr (root)
- Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 23:35:12 +0100 (CET)
- Cc: friedrich dot dominicus at inka dot de
o Bugs aren't specific to gcc we all know that.
o Neither to compiler systems.
o To find bugs a debugger is a useful tool.
o Conclusion: I wrote a debugger for gcc.
Yesterday, it run for the first time. Obviously, I had run the system before,
testing and so on. But yesterday it runned well. Then, I like to say it runned
really for the first time.
Loaded all the gcc generated debug info. Yet another debugger info job. I wrote
a debugger for Microsoft's MSVC specs, so this one was easier, I knew what I had
to do, and the machine part of the debugger is compiler independent.
I wrote it in C. I like C. The debugger runs first in C programs. It is a nice
language for people that like to program at system level.
Then the debugger connected itself with the IDE as it should, loaded the source
file, and displayed the first breakpoint at the main() function. Nice, I liked
that.
F4 makes you go in single step mode, without following call instructions. At
each step, the debugger examines the machine instruction the program will
execute, and follow (or not) calls, etc. F8 traces into, F9 gets out of the
current function, F7 run to cursor, and other stuff. All that seemed to be
working at the C level. Wow, I have done it again.
But then...
What are the guys at gnu thinking about this? Maybe I should tell them?
Interested?
I think a debugger is useful, because a car is not only a motor you see?
It needs something to sit down in, some actuators to drive the wheels, stop,
accelerate, etc. A compiler is not only the motor but the system, I would
say. An easy to use stuff that lets you follow the program is nice to have.
And gdb?
Well, I suspect that there isn't any development there. I sent a bug report
more than a year ago ( I do forget things) and no improvement under windows. Of
course gdb runs well in other systems, but I think its missing a feature:
My debugger tries to find out what the program is doing and show automatically
the changes to the program environment.
This means less typing for the debugger user, the programmer.
I would propose this improvement to gdb.
--
Jacob Navia Logiciels/Informatique
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