Subject: Re: Mysterious gdb behavior.
From: Nicholas Wourms <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: Paul Derbyshire <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 05:36:26 -0700 (PDT)

--- Paul Derbyshire <[email-masked]> wrote:
> On 28 Jul 2002 at 7:10, Nicholas Wourms wrote:
> 
> > As usual, you are quite right.  I was just trying to teach the
> hobbit
> > how to fish without doing it for him.  If he's reading this, I
> > suggest he seriously considier reading the FAQ completely before
> > asking YA question that is covered by it.

***First off, keep your replies on the list***
 
> FYA, I did read the FAQ. However:

From your somewhat clueless and longwinded responses, one is likely
to deduce that you haven't.  Either that or your read the FAQ and
didn't understand it.

> * Nothing about gdb's behavior suggested to me that the directory
>   name was an issue. Therefore it would not occur to me to consider
>   that part of the FAQ relevant.

You really need to take a course in problem-solving.  Finding out
what's causing the problem isn't always going to be black-and-white. 
You must eliminate the usual suspects before you resort to assuming
the bug lies in the software.  That means checking out the relevant
FAQ for the platform/software you are using and asking yourself "does
this condition exist?"  I have neither the time nor the energy to
lecture you on the proper methods of problem solving, you'll have to
explore other channels to attain the proper skills.

> * I got to that part of the FAQ after the directory name had been
> set
>   in stone, so to speak. Unless you know a way to change a user
> name
>   painlessly without needing to reinstall a lot of stuff or lose
>   data, I'm stuck with it and need to know how to make it work.

This is called "research" in problem solving.  You now have
ascertained where the problem lies, but your hasty conclusion that
the directory path is set in stone is foolish.  You should have
searched the mailing list archives [which if you looked at the bottom
of the message, it tells you where they are assuming you are
subscribed to this list (hint: http://cygwin.com/lists.html] to see
how this problem was approached and solved in the past.  I know the
answer is there as I had to do so myself.  Even without the list, I
could deduce the following:

The name of my home directory directly coinsides with the logon name
I used the very first time I booted into windows.  Therefore, what I
should do is click logout of windows and sign-in with no spaces in my
name.  The rest I'll leave up to you...

> * File names with spaces aren't illegal on unix, AFAIK, so why
> don't
>   Cygwin's components deal with it gracefully? More accurately, why
>   doesn't gdb? Because it hasn't troubled a lot of other tools,
>   notably gcc and make, which invoke all kinds of other programs
> and
>   use all kinds of files from the directory and work fine, while
> gdb
>   gums things up just invoking *one*.

*Sigh* I think you are missing the point, Cygwin is an emulation
layer, not a full-fledged operating system.  However, patches are
gratefully accepted.  So instead of waxing eloquent on this subject
anymore, might I suggest you look into the sources and figure out why
it is this way.

Cheers,
Nicholas

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