Chat with Chris Hesik on Delphi 2005 debugger features

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This is a log of the chat room during the live audio chat from December 15, 2004 on Delphi 2005 with Chris Hesik. Chris discusses debugging support in Delphi 2005.

Note: This log is only the chat room transcript. There is much additional information covered in the audio replay that is not available in this chat log. For all previous and upcoming live chats, see http://bdntv.borland.com/chat.html.

VIP Lounge

jkaster inserts the following link: http://blogs.borland.com/ChrisHesik/
jkaster : Chris' blog

jkaster inserts the following link: http://bdn.borland.com/article/0,1410,31263,00.html
jkaster : "Using Non-Breaking Breakpoints in Delphi" by Cary Jensen

jkaster : tx for reminder, mrpmorris
jkaster inserts the following link: http://qc.borland.com

jkaster : is the QualityCentral web site

jkaster : davidi : "Is there a limit to the number of processes I can debug?" - there shouldn't be. The debugger doesn't limit you in any way.

jkaster : davidi : "Can you step from managed code into native code?" - Not in Delphi 2005. We're still actively investigating it.

jkaster : abauer : "What about true hybrid managed/unmanaged debugging including stepping across that boundary?" - for now, if you want to debug a mixed application, you'll need to debug those sides separately. We do this with the IDE itself. For example, set a breakpoint on the native side, then detach from the native debugger, attach the managed process and debug that, and so on.

jkaster : bmcgee : "Can we control where things get logged? For example, logging the call stack on a breakpoint to CodeSite or a text file." - All the log information goes to the event log. You can save the event log to a file.

jkaster : davidi : "What's the difference between "Multi-Process" and "Active Process" Debugger Views" - I mentioned this in my blog. Some views in the IDE will allow you to look at information from more than one process at a time, such as the thread and modules views. Most views use just the active process, like the CPU view, watch window, etc.

jkaster : Atmapuri : "Are there any plans to support user programmable debugger (watches and tooltips)?" - part of a batch question ...

jkaster : basa : "VS.NET 2005 introduces custom visualizers in the debugger (http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/05/VisualStudio2005Debugging/). Is there a similar functionality in D2005? If so, how do I write my own visualizers, if not, do you plan to add such a functionality to Delphi?" - currently we don't support visualizers. It got dropped from the list for this release, but it's near the top of the list for a future release. We'd like to make it as compatible as possible with the way VS will do it so people don't need to learn two methods.

jkaster : davidi : "Do you have any suggestions for debugging optimized native code (besides turning optimizations off)?" - There is a blog entry on this.

jkaster : jkaster : "any plans to support edit/continue?" - I think MS announced C# will have this as well (as VB.NET). We'll look at doing this on the managed side since the framework will evidently support it. Please put requests like this in QC and vote on them.

jkaster : basa : "what happened to remote debugging in D2005? I consider this as mission critical, do you have any plans to integrate it again in the upcoming D2005 service pack?" - It was removed from Delphi 2005 simply because it was a resourcing issue. It's quite a bit of work, and since the debugger changed drastically for Delphi 2005, we had to unfortunately drop it. We haven't gotten a whole lot of feedback on its importance, so again use QC to indicate its importance. There may also be a survey coming up on this soon from Michael Swindell (Product Manager)

jkaster : aohlsson : "Why is the "Thread Start" messages in Red? Isn't red for errors?" - typically red IS for errors. I'm not sure why it's red initially, but you can change the colors used in the event log in IDE preferences

jkaster : Serge_d : "Do you plan to support DEBUG/DEPLOY personalities/compile mods in Delphi 200x" - We do support it on the C# personality. It's actually project manager rather than debugger related. Some other IDE engineers are looking at this.

jkaster : jkaster : "CodeGuard is a great debugging feature of C++Builder. Will we see anything like that for Delphi applications?" - I don't know. We're not working on it currently. There are some third party tools available for this rignt now.

jkaster : Serge_d : "Do you plan to support Inheritance chain in Exception class for Win32" - Please clarify this question.

jkaster : basa : "could Borland help Simon Kissel to bring us a remote debugger for CrossKylix?" - we've certainly heard about this request

jkaster : from abauer: re: Debug/Release options; It was on the list for Delphi 2005, but was one of the unfortunate victims of time constraints

jkaster : Tjipke : "(Just joining, so sorry if it is allready asked) But is it normal that I can't change values during .Net debugging? (like in win32)" - not normal, just a limitation we need to address.

aohlsson : basa : "for remote debugging: what is the QC-number?" - There doesn't seem to be one, so please add one. When you add it, it should pop up here - http://qc.borland.com/wc/wc.exe/?areaid=4527

jkaster : Serge_d : "Exception when reraised does not know about intercepted exception, there is no option to do reraise with history like available in .Net" - I might need an example or test case for this. Please submit a report to QC and let us know the number.

jkaster : tx, serge. Let us know QC#, if it already exists that's fine.

Public chat

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funkyfred : hi all
funkyfred : wow borland radio ;-)
mrpmorris : Hi Anders
mrpmorris : Hello ladies
mrpmorris : John K, HowToDoThings.com is written in plain ASP. Version 2 is in the works written with ECO + ASP.NET
mrpmorris : So I'll write the article once it is complete
mrpmorris : audio is good
Serge_d : Hi everybody
basa : suggestion for jkaster: it would be nice if questions asked would also show up in text in the public chat window when discussed.

Editor's Note: they don't appear until the response to the question is completed.

Tjipke : Certainly need to address it!
Serge_d : I will follow up with QC, but I believe it was in QC already. I will reraise question in NG and QC.NG

mrpmorris : thanks
Tjipke : bye