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

[Darin Wright <Darin_Wright@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> 
> 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?
> 

The platform provides capabilities to deal with this issue. The SDK ships 
with "Development" capabilities for PDE, JDT, Debug and Ant. If the JDT 
capability is turned off, associated UI contributions are not be visible.

This helps at a certain level (when capabilities are disjoint, and can be 
turned off) - but I'm not sure it helps for the Adobe Flash Builder (i.e. 
would you turn off the JDT capability in Flash Builder by default?).

The problem with using a debug context is as you pointed out - the context 
only exists while debugging, so we don't know what to display when no 
debug sessions exist. If the actions are hidden before debugging, users 
cannot create deferred breakpoints easily. 

The JDT action does appear in the Run menu, but it is harder to find - and 
users are used to it being in the breakpoints view. 

Darin