Re: FYI: removing the libstdc++ pretty-printers

[Paul Pluzhnikov <ppluzhnikov at google dot com>]

On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 9:41 AM, Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com> wrote:

> Paul> Is there a way for these users to get GDB STL pretty printers without
> Paul> GCC upgrade?
>
> They can check out just the libstdc++/python directory from gcc svn.
> Then they just need to work out the code to load the printers...
>
> While that is not super friendly, I think it is pretty important that
> we maintain the printers (1) alongside the code they work with, and
> (2) in a single place.

I wonder ...

Given that we don't want to have full GDB tests which check that STL pretty
printers work (for fear of libstdc++ implementation changing underneath us),
and libstdc++ can't test these printers at all (they'd need a capable GDB
to do so, which isn't going to be generally available for a while), who
is going to maintain these printers at all?

Since the printers are versioned, and (AFAIU) libstdc++ implementation
can not change in v6 (that would break binary compatibility), would it not be
better for us to maintain libstdcxx/v6/printers.py (especially given that
any required maintenance would likely be due to GDB/Python internals changes,
not libstdc++.so.6 changes).

Thanks,
-- 
Paul Pluzhnikov