Hi,

I just can't seem to debug anything inside the Lazarus IDE. Maybe my computer just doesn't like me or something. :-(

See attached screenshot. "Slots" is a local variable which is a "record" structure. I can't seem to get any debug information about the fields in that record, using Lazarus IDE.

Does anybody actually debug code inside the Lazarus IDE? Or do you all use external debugging tools or log files? I seem to get the feeling that debugging is the single biggest feature missing from the Lazarus IDE. Unfortunately debuging is a vital part of any IDE.

Regards,
- Graeme -

_______________________________________________
fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit
http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/
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Yes I do, a lot.
And yes painfully aware of the limitations. Well at least I anyway never used evaluation through hint, I always use watches window.

Lot's depends on the version of FPC, and the version of gdb you have. I have in the past assembled workarounds, and put them in FAQ ( http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/GDB_Debugger_Tips / reachable via the FAQ )

Another thing is that sometimes all watches start returning an error, in which case you must remove all of them, and add them again, and they will work. Not sure what gets stuck there...

Best Regards
Martin

I had the feeling I had a dejavu.
Please, before this ends up in a long discussion again, a lot was already mentioned earlier. See links below.

http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/pipermail/lazarus/2008-October/039225.html http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=12522

and of course: google

Best Regards
Martin

2009/9/30 Martin :

I had the feeling I had a dejavu.

Same here, and found the same link via google. :-) Sorry for creating this thread again.

Regards,
- Graeme -

_______________________________________________
fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit
http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/

Hi Graeme,

The debugger is not usable as it does not have been in the focus to be developed.

Object property values cannot be seen either (dwarf or something external program used does not support properties). There were questions about the debugger functions in the past 2 years, same as yours both on the Lazarus forums and the mailing lists. If I remember correctly the answer was something like it is not priority until after 1.0 .
IMO it is one of the most important aspects of RAD development to have a fully working IDE debugger. Currently in Lazarus the debugger is not usable for serious development because some of the most basic requirements are missing. Not to mention a CPU window, etc. It seems a new debugger should be developed that does not depend on non compatible external programs, but there were no resources to do it in the past years.

AB

without further digging to verify further i must also agree... i've recently had many questions about multiplatform pascal compilers and i have been pointing to fpc/lazarus but 99% have always come back with problems with debugging stuffs... many simply do not know or understand or even care about compiler developments stuffs but are simply "old school" coders looking for a working compiler for their needs... "working compiler" includes valid debugging capabilities along with necessary "conversion tools" to move from such as TP6, TP7, delphi and similar...

to be slightly more specific, many of these folk are "old school" BBS coders... BBS meaning the older DOS type BBS' and their newer windows based cousins... a major need is "direct" serial port and or "FOSSIL" access capabilities which have historically been via ASM code with pascal "library kits" which relieve them from having to know or understand such nuances as to how the code structures are sent to the FOSSIL or serial ports...