[platform-debug-dev] Debugger enhancement request: debugger view toolbar

[Mike Morearty <mmoreart@xxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Debugger enhancement request: debugger view toolbars change based on context

If you have the JDT installed into Eclipse, the Breakpoints view includes an icon for adding a Java exception breakpoint it is a "J" with "!" next to it.

We would like to add a similar toolbar button in Adobe Flash Builder (formerly Flex Builder), for breakpoints in Flash/ActionScript code.  But the problem is that as far as I know, the toolbar of the Breakpoints view is “global” -- toolbar buttons cannot be dynamically added or removed based on some sort of context.  So, if the user has both the JDT and Flash Builder installed into the same copy of Eclipse, they will have both the “J!” and the “F!” icons; and theoretically, the toolbar could quickly become very cluttered.

I wonder, would it be possible to add some sort of enhancement to allow the toolbar to be dynamically populated based on some sort of context?

The problem is figuring out what context to use.  One pretty good possibility would be to use the IDebugModelContext. The only problem I can think of with that, though, is that context-specific toolbar buttons would disappear when the user was not debugging.  For example, I suspect some JDT users really expect that “J!” button to always be there; if it disappeared when they weren’t debugging, they might not be able to figure out how to set an exception breakpoint before launching their program.

Another possibility is the perspective.  Flash Builder uses its own “Flash Debug” perspective instead of the standard Debug perspective.  But, although this would work for us, it probably wouldn’t help users of other Eclipse-based debuggers that use the standard Debug view.

Thoughts?

- Mike Morearty
  Adobe Systems Inc.