Re: [cdt-dev] Re: [cdt-debug-dev] enabling CDT to use multiple debuggers

[thomson@xxxxxxxxxx]

Robert:

> The fundamental question, in Eclipse terms, is: do we associate a
debugger
> with a project, or with a launch configuration?

Or maybe neither, because we can make the correct choice ourselves.
It depends on why the user is switching and where the choices come from.

Tom wants to be able to select which gdb is used, and probably to modify
the options it is launched with.
John Rose is going to create a dbxPicl, and will want to run that for AIX
development but still using the
Picl remote debugging architecture.   Others will want to use debug plugins
that hook in at the
org.eclipse.debug level, and don't use the Picl structure at all.
These are the structural choice points in Eclipse.

Some of the choices they represent really are user customization, but
others aren't.
If I am doing remote development to an AIX system I shouldn't be given a
choice of
half a dozen debugger configurations when only one of them will actually
work.
So, I think the first question is how do we figure out which debuggers
are viable for a given project?

We are going to run into this same question with project wizards/makefile
generators, builders,
help systems, profilers, and probably other places too.  I suggest we plan
to use
capabilities for this.   Debuggers would register as being viable for
projects
with certain capabilities.

If that yields more than one debugger, then the user makes a choice.
This is where your question comes into the picture, whether the choice is
in a tab in the project preferences dialog or in a launch configuration
dialog.
How would these behave differently?  I think I would normally be creating
multiple
launch configurations for other reasons, e.g. to run my application with
different
environment settings, working directories, command line parameters, etc.
etc.
and wouldn't want to have to re-select my favourite debugger each time.



Brian Thomson