From 0b99631b0afd80ab3be68f1d22922b5b1d24c6e1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: hjk <qtc-committer@nokia.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:58:53 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] doc: some additional contents for the debugging helpers
Reviewed-by: Leena Miettinen
---
doc/qtcreator.qdoc | 42 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
1 file changed, 33 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/qtcreator.qdoc b/doc/qtcreator.qdoc
index 359ddd4cbbb..c16e2702424 100644
--- a/doc/qtcreator.qdoc
+++ b/doc/qtcreator.qdoc
@@ -4295,7 +4295,7 @@
around as described in the link provided below:
\l http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-4962.
- \endtable
+ \endtable
\section1 Setting the Symbol Server in Windows
@@ -4657,22 +4657,46 @@
\title Using Debugging Helpers
- \section1 Debugging Helper Library with C++
+ Qt Creator is able to show complex data types in a customized,
+ user-extensible manner. For this purpose, it takes advantage of
+ two technologies, collectively referred to as \e{Debugging Helpers}.
+
+ Using the debugging helpers is not \e essential for debugging
+ with Qt Creator, but they enhance the user's ability to quickly
+ examine complex data significantly.
+
+ \section1 Debugging Helpers based on C++
- While debugging, Qt Creator dynamically loads a helper library into your
- program. This helper library enables Qt Creator to pretty print Qt and STL
- types. The Qt SDK package already contains a prebuilt debugging helper
+ This is the first and original approach to display complex data
+ types. While it has been superseded on most platforms by the more
+ robust and more flexible second approch using Python scripting,
+ it is the only feasible one on Windows/MSVC, Mac OS, and
+ old Linux distributions. Moreover, this approach will automatically
+ be chosen as fallback in case the Python based approach fails.
+
+ During debugging with the C++ based debugging helpers,
+ Qt Creator dynamically loads a helper library in form of a DLL or a
+ shared object into the debugged process.
+ The Qt SDK package already contains a prebuilt debugging helper
library. To create your own debugging helper library, select \gui{Tools} >
\gui{Options...} > \gui{Qt4} > \gui{Qt Versions}. As the internal data
structures of Qt can change between versions, the debugging helper
library is built for each Qt version.
- \section1 Debugging Helper Library with Python
+ \section1 Debugging Helpers based on Python
+
+ On platforms featuring a Python-enabled version of the gdb debugger,
+ the data extraction is done by a Python script. This is more robust
+ as the script execution is separated from the debugged process. It
+ is also easier to extend as the script is less dependend on the
+ actual Qt version and does not need compilation.
- With the gdb Python version, you can
- use debugging helpers also for user defined types. To do so,
- define one Python function per user defined type in \c{.gdbinit}.
+ To extend the shipped Python based debugging helpers for custom types,
+ define one Python function per user defined type in the
+ gdb startup file. By default, the following startup file is used:
+ \c{~/.gdbinit}. To use another file, select \gui {Tools > Options... > Gdb}
+ and specify a filename in the \gui {Gdb startup script} field.
The function name has to be qdump__NS__Foo, where NS::Foo is the class
or class template to be examined. Nested namespaces are possible.
--
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