DBug

AgentOrange · Joined: 21 Jul 2005 Posts: 61

DBug is a win32 debugger written in D - designed specifically for D applications. This isnt a release yet as its still extremely early in the probject, but I have just placed the current version into source repository.

the code is a bit of a mess right now but the basic debugging system is in place. the debugger consists of several projects that will probably be broken out in the future. here are the primary projects:

dmddebug - a debugging tools library
dwf - D windows framework - this will eventually be a full featured applications framwork for win32 applications
dbug - a win32 debugging gui built from dmddebug + dwf

note - some of this code has come from several locations including digdug, akide, and some of the gui libraries on dsource. i plan on specifying this more clearly after i have cleaned up the codebase a bit.

building:

basically run bld.bat in the src/dbug directory
for some reason, on occasion, dmd.exe never returns and runs endlessly. i usually can do a build -full and it works, other times ive had to comment out various parts of code until it begins working - then i can uncomment the code and its fine. this is quite puzzling and im still trying to figure this out. this is very rare but it has happened more than once.

use:

run dbug.exe and file...open and select an exe

the current keys are:

F5 - run application
F11 - step (not fully working)

you can open the source code from the tree at the left - it will list source files
you can set breakpoints by clicking on the leftmost margin in the source windows - removing breakpoints isnt finished and its getting an exception trying to resume from a breakpoint

but the core debuger message loop and process management seem to be pretty solid.

again this isnt any kind of release yet but I want to make this available for anyone who is interested in this project.

AgentOrange · Joined: 21 Jul 2005 Posts: 61

some additional notes:

the module 'dbug.debugapi' is designed to be included in debuggee applications to provide debugger text output

a sample file called x.exe (and x.d) is there to test debug output and throwing an exception

im using the tool x2d.exe (x2d.d included) to convert xml to d source code for resources. if you want to modify resources edit the resource.xml file and run 'x2d resource.xml' to generate the file 'resource.d'.

the project 'windows' contains win32 api headers not included in std.c.windows

ElfQT · Joined: 03 Sep 2005 Posts: 14

I've seen and tried several ways to debug D. All missing the ability to debug-watch any compound types, including char[]. I'd like to see a debugger (more, an IDE) capable of this. ElfQT

AgentOrange · Joined: 21 Jul 2005 Posts: 61

thats pretty easy, as ive just gotten into cracking the codeview symbols - the problem is the dbghelp.dll on windows has trouble reading the codeview symbols for D apps - so you have to parse the exe file yourself. i dont think symbols are a problem, i hope to have it in this week. its recovering from breakpoints im getting annoyed about. and i grabbed the latest this morning and dmd is doing its thing where it runs forever and never returns - im trying to figure this out right now. if anyone has any ideas why this happens please let me know. it looks like its getting into some sort of infinite loop while compiling

but yah, being able to access D data structures is one of the central reasons im building this debugger Very Happy

ElfQT · Joined: 03 Sep 2005 Posts: 14

Can't agree more with your goal.
If you manage to do it I will bow to your feet.
Others have failed. I have to tell, I simply didn't understand from the beginning (I mean the beggining the point when I came across D), why others haven't made a working and capable debugger for D. I have ranted about, but beed told use printf ... oh, sure.
D seemed something more than an average 'I've made the greatest language' flash, and I thougth and still think that clever/serious/professional ppl are around it, so it seriously needs pro tools also. And I've been amazed why these other ppl not realizing that... :p

AgentOrange · Joined: 21 Jul 2005 Posts: 61

qbert · Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 209 Location: Dallas, Texas

Is thier a zipped 'download' people can try w/o having to download and build the source ? I tried running dbug.exe alone I get access violation.

Charlie

AgentOrange · Joined: 21 Jul 2005 Posts: 61

sorry im not releasing anything yet because theres no real point yet unless someone wants to get their hands dirty. Im pretty much just supplying access in case anyone wants to help, but it will be a little while until I have a release.