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> GDB of course Every time I end up using a GUI debugger, I end up disappointed. GDB has spoiled me. Best feature that GDB has, for me? The ability to script w

> GDB of course Every time I end up using a GUI debugger, I end up disappointed. GDB has spoiled me. Best feature that GDB has, for me? The ability to script what happens when a breakpoint is hit. A recent example: I have a state machine on an embedded system that is somewhat timing dependent (delaying a couple milliseconds is fine, delaying >1 sec is not). I stuck a breakpoint on the entry point and told GDB to dump a state structure every time it hit and then automatically continue. I get output describing exactly which events are coming in and what the state is at each step. Magic! This is relevant in JS land when you have a bunch of callbacks/promises/whatever. HTTP requests continue executing while you’re paused on a breakpoint, so debugging things like out-of-expected-order promise results gets really hard. GDB is definitely a power tool and requires some learning to use it effectively, but don’t write it off just because of that.

woah 8y ago
You could just write that code temporarily inline
- seanmcdirmid 8y ago
  Ya, that’s what I would do. More to the point, the interface for more more advanced debugger features generally don’t make them worth it (eg intellitrace). Debugging is a heavily constrained usability experience.
- tonyarkles 8y ago
  Sure, if I had access to some kind of console output interface! I could have set up a UART, and a bunch of complex code to walk through the whole data structure, and hoped that formatting and streaming it all out didn't blow my timing. Or I could do: break fsm_entry command p/x event p/x state c end
Bjartr 8y ago
> Best feature that GDB has, for me? The ability to script what happens when a breakpoint is hit. Conditional breakpoints in chrome could do this for a while by having your conditional be a call to a logging function, and it was recently made more discoverable and user-friendly as "logpoints".

woah 8y ago

You could just write that code temporarily inline

seanmcdirmid 8y ago
Ya, that’s what I would do. More to the point, the interface for more more advanced debugger features generally don’t make them worth it (eg intellitrace). Debugging is a heavily constrained usability experience.
tonyarkles 8y ago
Sure, if I had access to some kind of console output interface! I could have set up a UART, and a bunch of complex code to walk through the whole data structure, and hoped that formatting and streaming it all out didn't blow my timing. Or I could do: break fsm_entry command p/x event p/x state c end

Bjartr 8y ago

> Best feature that GDB has, for me? The ability to script what happens when a breakpoint is hit. Conditional breakpoints in chrome could do this for a while by having your conditional be a call to a logging function, and it was recently made more discoverable and user-friendly as "logpoints".