Re: Displaying vectors in register window

[Keith Seitz <keiths at redhat dot com>]

On Thu, 2003-06-26 at 14:18, Fred Fish wrote:
> However using insight, this long of a string apparently chokes the
> register window handling, as the scroll bar behaves very erratically
> and the window contents get scrambled.  Is there some sort of length
> limitation that could be causing this?

None that I know of, but that doesn't really help you much. :-( I would
suggest experimenting with the table if you think this is a posibility.

>   xmm0           {v4_float = {0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0}, v2_double = {0x0, 0x0}, v16_int8 = {0x0 <repeats 16 times>}, v8_int16 = {0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0}, v4_int32 = {0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0}, v2_int64 = {0x0, 0x0}, uint128 = 0x00000000000000000000000000000000}
> 
> the register window only displays the v4_float view of the register
> contents.  There doesn't appear to be any way to select the other
> views, say the v8_int16 one.

You can right-click the name of the register and it will show a list of
the different types, i.e, v4_float, v2_double, v16_int8, etc. Choose one
of them to display the register in that "format". Martin added this
feature some time ago. Maybe he'll drop in for a comment.

> One last question, how hard would it be to format each of the
> registers value into something other than a 1xN list.

Unlike almost every other debugger on the planet which uses a listbox
for registers, the Insight window is much more densely populated.
Allowing the display of registers this way would require a rather
fundemental rewrite of the register window for this. It's sad, but
that's the way it is (right now, at least -- and probably forever).

IMO, the easiest way to do specialized register displays (as I've long
advocated) is via the plug-in mechanism. This would be exceptionally
easier to implement, since it's basically a blank slate. (The plug-in
mechanism also allows you to only activate the code on your own terms,
i.e., if your username is "harry potter", or you're debugging a certain
target, or on a specific host, etc.)

I wish I had better news. Sorry.
Keith