Hello.
I've recently been trying out CDT's DSF-GDB debugger functionality, and it works quite well, which is great.
The interesting thing here is that it works well even for executables that were compiled from languages other than C/C++, as long as it's a language GDB has support for. This means there is the real possibility of using DSF-GDB for debugging support in IDEs other than CDT, and in fact that's exactly what I'm working on. I'm developing for DDT, an Eclipse IDE for the D language, and I'm trying to integrate DSF-GDB as the debugger functionality.
It doesn't seem like this was an intended use of DSF-GDB, but fortunately it's technically feasible already, since the CDT launch supports a project-less configuration. So, I'm implementing this by creating and configuring a org.eclipse.cdt.dsf.gdb.launching.GdbLaunchDelegate from my IDE's own delegate, and then launching it. So the basics of this approach works, but there a few kinks to it. First and foremost, having a dependency on DSF-GDB implies a dependency on the whole of CDT. Yet it seems like DSF debugger support could (and should) be abstracted into a language-independent layer/feature. Then CDT and other IDEs could make use of it, and this would make sure all debugger functionality would be available for non-C/C++ projects (there are already one or two other minor limitations I've found that I could not resolve, and there might be more as I complete the integration). But before delving further, I would like to get a feel for how much interest there is to pursue this enhancement? Can a ticket be opened for this?
BTW, Goclipse is another IDE that would benefit from this (as Go is another language supported by stock GDB). Goclipse does have it's own GDB debugger integration already, but it's not as full-featured as CDT's, it has several significant bugs, and has not been maintained in a while.
[ Doug, remember you wanted to help improve Eclipse's IDE framework support for other languages. Here's a low hanging fruit you can help with ;-) ]
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Bruno Medeiros
