[cdt-debug-dev] CDT Win32 Debugger

[Matthew Ballance <matt.ballance@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

    I've started work on a CDT win32 debugger using the
'dbghelp' library supplied by Microsoft. This work builds on the
org.eclipse.cdt.debug.win32.core and org.eclipse.cdt.debug.win32.ui
plugins started by Doug Schaefer (and others?).

    The primary goal of the project is to support
debugging of applications compiled with the Microsoft compiler. The
debug format used by the Microsoft compiler is proprietary and
undocumented. Microsoft supplies the dbghelp library to provide access
to the debug information emitted by its compiler. The library is
freely-distributable, which is important (at least to me): An important
requirement of this debugger is that all components can be distributed
with the debugger. The user should not need to install extra components
if at all possible.

    A secondary goal of the project is to create a
debugger that can debug applications compiled with GCC as well as with
the Microsoft compiler. This goal will be tackled in phase2 of the
project (once all features are supported for Microsoft-compiled apps).

    Thus far, I've mainly been doing research to find
good sources of information about the Sym API (the API supplied by
dbghelp.dll). The API is documented in the Microsoft SDK 
documentation, but I've found that some more involved examples to be
very helpful. I've also started prototyping the debugging using what
I've learned about walking the stack, accessing local symbols, settings
breakpoints, etc.

    Since I'm very early in the design and
implementation of this project, I would appreciate any feedback that
others have. I'm particularly interested to know whether others would
be interested in a debugger that can debug applications with
M.S.-compiled and/or GCC-compiled components.
    If others are interested in working on implementation, I would also be interested. 



Thanks and Regards,
Matthew