Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 18:16:56 +0300 (IDT)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: James W Sager Iii <sager+@andrew.cmu.edu>
cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com, Robert Hoehne <robert DOT hoehne AT gmx DOT net>
Subject: Re: 2 rhide q's.
In-Reply-To: <Ep7Zzmy00WB906LFE0@andrew.cmu.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.980329180043.16078C-100000@is>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Precedence: bulk

(I cc: this to the news group, since it might be of interest to others.)

On Sun, 29 Mar 1998, James W Sager Iii wrote:

> Sometimes I use many different watch variables, and
> due to the fact that I have TONS of pointers, they can get very long.
> Since the watch editor is very weak, I'd like to use a more powerful editor
> to make my wtach variables. Also I'd like to save them to use later if I
> have unexpected debugging to do. 

RHIDE's built-in debugger is based on GDB, the GNU Debugger (also
available as a stand-alone debugger in v2gnu/gdbNNNb.zip, where NNN is the
last version).  I *know* that GDB supports such a feature.  You can write
a script of commands which you need to execute once in every session, and
put them on a file.  If that file is called `gdb.ini', GDB will 
automatically load it when it starts.  If you only want the file loaded 
when you need it, you can call it otherwise and load it whenever you 
like.

Since RHIDE is based on GBD, I'd guess it supports this facility as well.
(Robert, can you confirm this please?)

GDB also has powerful features designed specifically for these scripts, 
which enable you to examine complex data structures and bit-mapped 
variables with a simple command.  You can even write your own commands in 
that scripting language, save them on a file and then use them.  For 
example, the following excerpt from the gdb.ini file which comes with GNU 
Emacs defines a command "xint" which prints the value of an Emacs integer 
type:

	set $valmask = ((long)1 << gdb_valbits) - 1
	set $nonvalbits = gdb_emacs_intbits - gdb_valbits

	define xint
	print (($ & $valmask) << $nonvalbits) >> $nonvalbits
	end
	document xint
	Print $, assuming it is an Emacs Lisp integer.  This gets
	the sign right.
	end

To read more about these facilities, go to the chapter called "Canned 
Sequences of Commands" in the GDB manual.