Re: CLI and GDB/MI documentation patch

[Bob Rossi <bob_rossi at cox dot net>]

On Sat, May 13, 2006 at 09:52:47AM +1200, Nick Roberts wrote:
>  > > Putting these things in the manual just makes it harder to change GDB.
>  > > I would rather say: "Its there.  Use it at your own risk".  Or at least:
>  > > 
>  > > 
>  > >   For the developers convenience CLI commands can be entered directly.
>  > >   However this feature may be removed at some stage in the future and
>  > >   it is recommended that front ends use the @code{-interpreter exec} command.
>  > >   @xref{GDB/MI Miscellaneous Commands}.
>  > 
>  > Do we indeed intend to remove this feature any time soon?  If so, I
>  > agree that we should add a warning about that.  
> 
> I don't know about any time soon buts it's clearly irregular and I guess
> could interfere with the design of MI.  Also it doesn't have to stay as
> -interpreter exec provides an alternative.
>  >                                                But, other than that,
>  > why do you say that describing the CLI support in mi in more detail
>  > will make it harder to change GDB?
> 
> Because if people write a front end that relies on a feature then understanably
> they are upset when it is changed or removed, just as I was when it appeared
> that annotations would be removed.   The one advantage of Emacs long
> release cycle is that it gives you more time to get everything right before
> its released.  GDB goes out about every six months along with an expectation
> that its behaviour will some level of maintenance.

I agree with you completly. What if we released mi3 with the
next release of GDB. We could remove the direct CLI commands then. I
think there would be some advantages to releasing mi3 anyways.

The good news for FE developers, is that a very quick fix on there side
should allow them to be working again.

Bob Rossi