Re: [cdt-dev] Toolchains in CDT

[Chris Songer <songer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:49 PM 2/5/2004 -0500, Alain Magloire wrote:
> A simple implementation of this editor can be just the dump output of
> the objdump utility or something more complex.

I think that certain information specific to the object file format should 
be available through IBinaryObject / IBinaryParser. Translating address to 
line and file, dealing with mangled names, retrieving section names and 
section data. Maybe disassembly.

After all, if the Parser for the Binary is not reading the debug sections 
to figure out what address goes where, who is?

Allowing an editor plugin for binaries in is a super idea, but what if I 
want to make a view that shows disassembly for a selected binary function 
in the CView? What if I want an editor ruler that translates profile data 
per address into line information? Or, if having made such a ruler, I want 
it to work with someone else's binary format?

I also think that extending IBinaryParser to provide additional binary 
specific information alleviates the need for the toolchain because all 
those tool chain entries that people want to use are providing information 
about the binary. Addr2line, cppfilt, objdump, size -- there's a reason GNU 
calls them binutils.

Abstract that functionality behind IBinaryParser and now it's just a matter 
of writing your plugin to the existing IBinaryParser extension and invoking 
the new tools. It also better supports non-gnu based toolchains as well as 
implementation directly in java if that's the right route.

Thanks!
-Chris